107 
flexure, 6'5; tail 6'75; bill, along the ridge - 9, along the edge of lower mandible 1'25 ; tarsus 1; middle 
toe and claw T5 ; hind toe and claw T2. 
Obs. Mr. Gould, describing the freshly killed bird in Australia, states that the oblong naked spot on the sides 
of the head is flesh-coloured, the pendulous wattle is of a pinky blood-red colour, the irides hazel-red, and 
the inside of the mouth yellow. 
In my ‘Essay on the Ornithology of New Zealand,’ 1865, I included the above species among our 
birds, on the authority of a specimen in the Auckland Museum, preserved by Mr. St. John, and said 
to have been obtained at Matakana, to the north of Auckland. The bird was retained in our lists 
for many years, but no fresh examples having been heard of, and St. John’s specimen being of 
doubtful authenticity, its name was ultimately expunged *. 
After a lapse of nearly twenty years I had again the pleasure of recording it (l. c.) as a New- 
Zealand bird. 
During a visit to Marton, I was invited by Mr. Avery, the local bird-stuffer, to examine his 
novelties. Among these was a bird which he had himself obtained when serving with the volunteers 
in Mr. Bryce’s expedition against Parihaka ; he met with it in some high scrub at the rear of the 
camp at Bahotu, when on fatigue-duty, and was fortunate enough to shoot it. The bird was new to 
him and he therefore skinned it, performing the operation very successfully. The skin was in a 
fresh condition when it came into my hands, and proved on examination to be a well-plumaged 
example of Acanthochcera carunculata. 
This specimen, which Mr. Avery was generous enough to give me, is now in my collection ; and 
the claim of this species to a place in the New-Zealand avifauna is undoubted. Its occurrence in our 
country, as a straggler from Australia, may only happen at long intervals ; but the rule in such cases 
is to admit every species of which even a single individual has been met with in a wild state, unless 
there is a suspicion of its having been introduced by man. 
Its habits are thus described in Gould’s ‘ Birds of Australia ’ : — 
“ It is a showy, active bird, constantly engaged in flying from tree to tree and searching among 
the flowers for its food, which consists of honey, insects, and occasionally berries. In disposition it is 
generally shy and wary, but at times is confident and bold. It is usually seen in pairs, and the 
males are very pugnacious. 
“ It breeds in September and October. The nests observed by myself in the Upper Hunter 
district were placed on the horizontal branches of the Angophovce, and were of a large rounded form, 
composed of small sticks, and lined with fine grasses ; those found by Gilbert in Western Australia 
were formed of dried sticks, without any kind of lining, and were placed in the open bushes. The 
eggs are two or three in number, one inch and three lines long by ten lines and a half broad ; their 
ground-colour is reddish butf, very thickly dotted with distinct markings of deep chestnut, umber, 
and reddish brown, interspersed with a number of indistinct marks of blackish grey, which appear as 
if beneath the surface of the shell. Eggs taken in New South Wales are somewhat larger than 
those from Western Australia, and have markings of a blotched rather than of a dotted form, and 
principally at the larger end.” 
* Dr. Otto Finsch (Z. c.) proposed to distinguish the example described by me, as a new species, under the name of Antho- 
chcera bulleri ; but it is well known that this bird is subject to a considerable amount of variation, and I do not consider the 
differences relied upon as having any specific value. The same remarks apply to the form described by Messrs. Vigors and Hors- 
field (Z. c.) under the distinctive name of A. lewini. 
Curiously enough, when hunting up the synonymy and bibliography of this specieB, I found that it had been described by 
M. Daudin (Z. c.) as far back as 1800, as a New-Zealand bird. His words are : — “ Cet oiseau de la nouvelle Zelande, est dans la 
galerie du Museum de Paris.” 
p 2 
