Birds of New Zealand. 39 
above (!). The colour, however, and small size are sufficient 
proofs that they cannot belong to C.novce-zealandia ; and when 
Mr. Potts saw them he at once recognized them as the eggs 
of a Stormy Petrel. Both Mr. H. Travers and myself now 
believe that they belong to Thalassidroma fregata. 
It is the more necessary that I should correct this mistake 
as Dr. Buller in his book (p. 160) states that the egg of C. 
novce-zealandice is "1*5 inch in length by 1*1 in breadth; the 
surface is smooth without being glossy, and, as a rule, pure 
white, but sometimes marked with obscure purplish spots at 
the thicker end,” and, although not given as a quotation, the 
measurements and latter part of this description must have 
been taken from my paper in f The Ibis/ as they correspond 
entirely with it. The egg of this bird is still a desideratum 
in collections. 
OcYDROMUS EARLI. 
It is much to be regretted that Dr. Buller does not produce 
better evidence in support of his statement that this bird oc¬ 
casionally breeds with the Barn-door Fowl. It is certainly 
astonishing that a naturalist should see and “ carefully ex¬ 
amine ” several supposed hybrids, and never preserve speci¬ 
mens, nor even take an intelligible description of them, nor 
ascertain what these supposed hybrids developed into. Dr. 
Buller cannot expect that other naturalists will accept as true 
a statement made in such a loose and unscientific manner. 
OcYDROMUS AUSTRALIS. 
The male bird described by Dr. Buller under this name is 
O. troglodytes (Gm.), while the female is the true O. aus¬ 
tralis (Sparrm.). These two species are quite distinct, as has 
been pointed out by Dr. Finsch in the f Journal fur Ornitho- 
logie/ May 1872, p. 174 &c. Another species of this genus 
has been lately received at the Colonial museum from Otago, 
which I shall shortly describe. 
Charadrius fulvus. 
Dr. Buller states that this bird “ occurs occasionally on the 
New-Zealand coast;” but as both Mr. Gould and Dr. Jerdon 
