67 
Zealand. Three subsequent cases have been recorded. A young bird in the flesh, received by Sir 
James Hector at the Colonial Museum, was noticed by me at the time, in the ‘ Transactions of the New- 
Zealand Institute’ (vol. vii. p. 225); another young bird was shot in Wellington harbour in January 
1877 ; and a third example, in more mature plumage, was picked up on the beach at Cape Campbell, 
by Mr. C. H. Hobson, in November 1877. The two last- mentioned specimens being in my collection, I 
was able to submit them to Mr. Howard Saunders, who unhesitatingly referred them to Stercorarius 
crepidatus, and I feel bound to accept the determination by one who has made this group of birds 
his special study *. 
On comparing the two adult birds there is a manifest difference in the coloration, the one 
described above having the breast greyish white, and the abdomen ashy-grey tinged with brown, 
whilst the other has the entire under surface white, marked on the breast and sides with interrupted 
bars of sooty brown. In both, however, the under surface of the wings and the axillary plumes are 
of a uniform dark ashy grey. These individual differences are thus accounted for by Mr. Saunders 
in treating of S. crepidatus (P. Z. S. 1876, pp. 328, 329) : — “ It is now well known that there are two 
very distinct plumages to be found in birds of this species, even in the same breeding-places — an 
entirely sooty form, and one with light underparts, — and that white-breasted birds pair with whole- 
coloured birds as well as with those of their respective varieties. If this species is ‘ dimorphic,’ the 
offspring of one particoloured and one white-coloured bird ought to resemble one or other of their 
parents without reference to sex ; my examination of upwards of a hundred specimens from widely 
different localities and in all stages inclines me to the belief that this is not the case, and that the young 
of such union will be intermediate, whilst the offspring of two similar parents will ‘ breed true.’ This 
point can only be solved by some ornithologist who will devote his attention to a colony during the 
breeding-season, observing the produce of all these unions, and, if possible, marking the nestlings 
before they take wing. ... It is worthy of notice that in Spitzbergen, its most northern breeding- 
ground, neither Dr. Malmgren nor Professor Newton found a single example of the dark whole- 
coloured form ; all those which Admiral Collinson’s and Dr. Kae’s Expeditions brought home from 
the far north are also white-breasted specimens, which looks as if the dark form was a more 
exclusively southern one.” 
* In my former edition I referred the first-named example to Stercorarius parasiticus, Linn., and added the following 
remarks : — “Dr. Pinsch, to whom I submitted the skin, is of opinion that it is an immature bird ; and Hr. Howard Saunders, 
who has made the Laridxe his special study', expresses his conviction that it is a new and hitherto undescribed species. I am 
rather disposed, however, to consider it an aged female of the species known as Buffon’s Skua, with the plumage much faded and 
worn, indicating a sick or exhausted condition of body. I may add that the two middle tail-feathers are only partially developed, 
being encased in a sheath at the base. They extend only about an inch beyond the rest, and are much abraded, having a 
peculiar filamentous appearance.” 
Professor Hutton, adopting another view, wrote to me :■ — “ Your Lestris is no European bird, but appears to be a represen- 
tative of the Arctic Skua. I think it is a young bird.” 
Commenting on my account of this bird, Mr. Saunders, in his paper on the Stercorariince (P. Z. S. 1876, p. 330), said : — “ His 
general description suits S. m'epidatm ■, and he expressly states that the shafts of the primaries are white, the characteristic which 
particularly serves to distinguish it from Button’s Skua, with which he has identified it. At the time that I examined the specimen 
in question I was not aware of this distinctive feature ; the skin also had been badly preserved ; and, to make matters worse, the 
plumage was so worn and abraded that it is a marvel that the bird was able to fly at all.” Referring thereto, in a communica- 
tion which I afterwards made to the Wellington Philosophical Society', I observed : — 
“ Mr. Saunders has evidently, in this case, trusted more to his memory than to tho notes which, we may assume, he would 
make on examining a novel specimen — one which, in fact, ho took to be ‘ a new and hitherto undescribed species.’ It will be 
seen, at a glance, that the specimen now before the meeting (which passed through Mr. Saunders’s hands in the same condition) 
instead of being a ‘ badly-prepared ’ skin is a first-class cabinet specimen, and that, instead of having ‘ the plumage so worn and 
abraded as to make it a marvel that the bird could fly at all,’ the wings are in perfect plumage, tho only abraded feathers 
being about the head and neck, which could not well affect the flydug capabilities of the bird.” (Trans. Rew-Zealand Inst, 
vol. xi. p. 356.) 
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