Ordee PASSERES.] 
CEEADION CINEEEUS. 
(JACK-BIRD.) 
[Fam. STURNIDiE. 
Creadion carunculatus (var.), Dieff. Report to N.-Z. Comp. (1844). 
Creadion carunculatus (juv.), Hombr. & Jacq. Voy. Pole Sud, Zool. iii. p. 12, fig. 4 (1853). 
Creadion cinereus, Buller, Essay N.-Z. Orn. p. 10 (1865). 
Creadion carunculatus (juv.), Einsch, Journ. f. Orn. 1867, p. 343 ; Hutton, Cat. of B. of N. Z. 1871, 
P- 17 ; Buller, Birds of N. Z. p. 149 (1873). 
Native name. — Tieke. 
Ad. cinerascenti-brunneus, subtus pallidior : scapularibus alisque umbrino lavatis : supracaudalibus et sub- 
caudalibus kcte rufescentibus : tectricibus alarum minimis rufo maculatis. 
Adult. The entire plumage dark cinereous brown, paler on the underparts, and tinged with umber-brown on 
the wings and scapulars ; the tips of the small wing-coverts and the entire upper and lower tail-coverts 
bright rufous. 
1 oung. May be distinguished by the extreme smallness of the caruncles. 
Obs. Individuals vary in the general tone of the plumage, some being greyish and others more strongly suffused 
with brown; the extent of the rufous markings on the wing-coverts is likewise variable, and in some 
examples they are entirely absent. 
Mr. Potts has published* some interesting notes on six specimens in the Canterbury Museum, all in 
the plumage of Creadion cinereus , for the purpose of showing “how much variation may be met with in the 
young state of C. carunculatus .” He admits, however, that these supposed young birds were “ procured at 
different seasons of the year/ 5 which he accounts for on the supposition of an “ extended breeding-season,” 
or “ that the adult state is not arrived at till the second year.” It will he seen from what follows that this 
view is untenable. 
Ix iny ‘Essay on the Ornithology of New Zealand,’ published by command in 1865, I characterized 
and named what appeared to me then a new species of Creadion in the following terms: — “This 
species is of the size and general form of C. carunculatus , to which it bears a close affinity ; but 
the colouring of the plumage is altogether different. The common species (the ‘ Saddle-back ) is of 
a deep uniform black, relieved by a band of rufous brown, which occupies the whole of the back, 
and, forming a sharp outline across the shoulders, sweeps over the wing-coverts in a broad curve. 
In the present bird, however, the plumage is of a dark cinereous brown, paler on the underparts, and 
tinted with umber on the wings and scapularies ; the upper and lower tail-coverts, and a few spots 
°n the smaller wing-coverts, bright rufous. The wattles are of the same colour and shape as in 
Creadion carunculatus , but somewhat smaller.” 
My new species was at once attacked by Dr. Otto Finsch, who declared his belief that it was 
the young 0 f Creadion carunculatus. Subsequently, in a paper which appeared in the ‘Transactions 
°f the New-Zealand Institute ’ (vol. v. p. 208), Dr. Finsch expressed his satisfaction that “ Captain 
* ‘ Out in the Open,’ pp. 202, 203. 
