93 
Letters , Announcements, fyc. 
Sir, —Some months since a letter appeared in ( The Ibis 3 
from Captain F. W. Hutton, calling in question my conclu¬ 
sions as to the distinctness of Hieracidea novce-zeatandice and 
H. brunnea. As there was, in point of fact, nothing to answer, 
and as the circumstance of my having accidentally, as it seems, 
given the symbol $ upside down on some of the labels in my 
collection appeared to me a very unworthy quibble for a na¬ 
turalist, I did not take any notice of that letter; but wrote 
instead to friends in the colony, urging them to help us in 
the inquiry by collecting larger series of carefully sexed spe¬ 
cimens, and by making further and closer observations on the 
habits of the species. 
The last number, however, of f The Ibis 3 contains two com¬ 
munications from Capt. Hutton, upon which, with your per¬ 
mission, I will offer a few observations. 
In the first place, as to Tribonyx mortieri. If the facts as 
communicated by Mr. Purdie are true, viz. that the bird 
brought home by Mr. Bills was obtained at Hobart Town 
and kept for a time in the Otago Acclimatization Gardens— 
then, in common with every lover of truth, I am much ob¬ 
liged to Captain Hutton for exposing a wilful deception. 
The bird in question was purchased from Mr. Bills by the 
Zoological Society as a New-Zealand bird; and I received a 
letter from Hr. Sclater apprising me of the fact and kindly 
placing it at my service. Mr. Bills, whom I saw personally 
on the subject, declared that it had been obtained on the 
shores of Lake Waihora, in the interior of the Otago pro¬ 
vince, and gave me a circumstantial account of its capture! 
As there was nothing improbable in the occurrence of such a 
form in New Zealand, or rather (as I have pointed out in my 
Introduction, p. xviii) as such a form might naturally be 
looked for there, I did not of course discredit the story, and 
was only too glad to accept Hr. Sclater's offer to make use 
of the Society's woodcut in my notice of the species. 
Secondly as regards Rallus modestus , Captain Hutton 
combats my judgment in referring his type specimen to 
Rallus dieffenbachii , juv. (‘ Birds of New Zealand/ p. 180), 
and enters upon a long argument to prove that not only are 
