INTRODUCTION. 
The first published list of the birds of New Zealand was drawn up by the late Mr. G. R,. Gray of the 
litish Museum, and appeared in 1843 in the Appendix to ‘Dieffenbach’s Travels.’ This enumeration 
contained the names of eighty-four recorded species ; but many of these were of doubtful authority, 
and have since been omitted. In the following year the same industrious ornithologist, in the 
° yage of H.M.SS. Erebus and Terror,’ produced a more complete list, embracing the birds of New 
Zealand and the neighbouring islands, accompanied by short specific characters, and illustrated by 
twenty-nine coloured figures, many of them of life-size. In July 1862 he published in ‘The Ibis’ a 
e vision of this synopsis, with the newly-recorded species added, including, moreover, the birds inha- 
itin b the Norfolk, Phillip, Middleton’s, Lord Howe’s, Macaulay’s, and Nepean Islands. This 
^ meiation contained altogether 173 species, of which 122 were said to occur in New Zealand and 
atham Islands. In the ‘ Essay on the Ornithology of New Zealand,’ written by myself at the 
Ins ti tut °* the Exhibiti ° n Commissioners, in 1865, and afterwards published by the New-Zealand 
1 u e , eleven additional species were recorded; and in a paper which I communicated to the 
g ^ b n ^ilosophical Society in August 1868 •j* I gave the names of fourteen more. A few other 
S * nce beeu added to the list; while, on the other hand, it has been found necessary to 
!°ut several which had been admitted on insufficient evidence. 
and i 7 fil 4 St edltlou of the present work, published in 1873, contained descriptions of 147 species; 
in lSS^tw ManUal ° f tbe Birds ° f New Zealand ’’ prepared at the request of the Colonial Government 
add i ' Aenty " mne more species were added to the list. The present edition does not profess to 
^ be num ber ; but the classification and nomenclature have been revised, and a far 
a furth ^ ' 'story has been given of each species than was possible before, seeing that I have, for 
with the' ^ b‘.^ ^ ^° U1 ^ een J ears » eil joyed favourable opportunities for becoming better acquainted 
folio wi 1 ■ duC ^° n former edition it was stated that I had considered it necessary to omit the 
Ifala & ^ CleS5 ^ b<31e be * n § 110 satisfactory evidence of their having occurred in New Zealand, viz. : — 
zealandicu mom * na ’ -Anthochcera carunculata, Gerygone igata, Rhipidura motacilloides, Aplonis 
Procell ' * • ca ^ e ^ omcus -> Ortygometra fiuminea, 0. crex, JS’esonetta aucklandica, Anous stolidus, 
penn ant'd ^ rno -^ s ’ Dysporus piscator, Plialacrocorax sulcirostris, and Aptenodytes 
uitier lesearch has shown that Gerygone igata is only a synonym of G. flaviventris ; 
Trans. N.-Z. Instit. 1868, vol. i. 
t Ibid. pp. 105-112. 
