INTRODUCTION. 
xv 
fro In theie appeared a new e<iition of tlie ‘Voyage of the Erebus and Terror,’ with an Appendix 
re pen of Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, containing valuable notes on many of the species, and giving 
ustiations of some birds not figured in the earlier issue. 
rni 
le most recen t work containing notices of New-Zealand birds is Mr. Seebohm’s on e The 
b a phical Distribution of the Charadriidte ’ *, where there is an excellent plate by Keulemans 
^presenting Charadrius olscurus in full summer plumage. 
^ ith regard to the changes I found it necessary, in my first edition, to make in the generally 
^ ^ ^ nomenclature, my explanation was a simple one. While fully admitting the advantages of 
. 6 r J Ut( d a non movere in the case of names which had obtained universal currency, I considered 
61 ’ lm dertaking a general revision of the whole subject, to apply the strict principle of 
em nomenclature, and, in all cases where the subject was free from doubt, to adopt the oldest 
e title. I knew that we could not look for any finality in the generic appellations so long 
science was a progressive one ; but I was desirous of giving something like fixity and 
^ anence to the specific names ; and with this view I endeavoured, so far as I could, to rectify 
had "j. m ° 6irois altering the names entirely in cases where it appeared to me that wrong ones 
101 ^ een employed, and correcting obvious classical defects in others — substituting, for 
intro ^ meno ^ (emus f° r Symmolaimus, and antipodum for antipodes. In no instance did I 
rities C ^ an » e without very careful consideration and research; and the fact that the autlio- 
ca( .. U . Museum adopted, with scarcely a single exception, my corrections and identifi- 
n the classification of the New-Zealand birds in the national collection, may, I think, be 
Ued as a pi oof that I exercised proper judgment in this respect. 
^ ^ 16 i n ( - sen t edition some other corrections of a trivial kind have been made in the nomen- 
’ ant ^ * n evei y instance I have given what I venture to think are sufficient reasons for the 
into^ 11' C ^ an ” es ' ^ or exam ple, no ornithological student will object to the rectification of albicilla 
7 . a ’ or ^ le substitution of Limosa novae zealandice for the museum name of Limosa 
T ’ 01 finally published without any description 
This 
3 classification I have departed considerably from the system followed in my first edition. 
I have ' lnC ' * n °Mer to keep pace with the progress of Ornithological science. I may state that 
by a Co fc ’.^ neia ^ an< ^ as far as practicable, adhered to the scheme of arrangement adopted in 1883 
^ ] ^ 6e °^ le British Ornithologists’ Union for the classification of the birds of Great Britain. 
6r ^ ave thought it necessary to make any alteration in the arrangement of the Ordinal 
« U o! \ la ' e U0 ^ hesitated to do so. For example, I have made the Orders Gallisue and Columb^e 
ES lns ^ eac i of being placed after Steganopodes, as I consider this an equally natural 
arrangement and. beft _ 
|.j 1 euer suited to the proposed division of my work into two volumes, the first closing 
hist mentioned Order, and the second opening with the Limicolas. I shall treat the Order 
birds of a jnrtic 1^ ^° aS ^ euou S^ to disoover “ blunders and omissions ” in any book that professes to treat exhaustively of the 
tionally unfortun ai . C ° Ua * :r ^’ or the members of any special group or division; but Mr. Seebohm seems to have been oxcep- 
desoendinn- to th ^ lc ^ erenC6s to New-Zealand species. He says of Charadrius ohscurus that “ it breeds in the mountains, 
nonce zeal and i I ' 1 '' iaer; ’ tie describes Anarliynchus frontalis as an “inland species; ” and he confounds Himantopus 
not easy howcv ,VI n t f ' r plumage with the Australian Stilt under the novel title of “ Himantopus leucocephalus picatus.” It is 
thologi S t s too s ' \° an au tbor who fairly and openly says : — “ If I have criticised the work of my fellow orni- 
an unsparino- h'nd ” ~ ^ as ^ P ai 'don and hope that they will pay me back in my own coin by correcting my blunders with 
