Page:Transactions and proceedings of the New Zealand Institute (IA transactionsproc61873newz).pdf/176

112 bands. Spots on the secondaries ferruginous, Middle tail-feathers marked like the others. This species appears to be confined to the southern parts of Otago, on the eastem side of the Alps, from Te Anau Lake to the sonthern slopes of the Takitimu Mountains. It differs from O. fusens in the markings of the wings and tail, and in the shape of the primaries. From O. troglodytes it differs in its general colouration, and in its smaller size. It may possibly be identical with Gallirallus brachypterus, Lafresnaye.

6.—O. earli, Gray.

Distinguished by its rusty brown back and grey abdomen, The primary feathers of the wing are, in the adult male, rounded at the point and banded with ferruginous on the inner web only; but in the adult female they are more or less banded on both webs and rounded at the tip. In the young bird they are marked as in the female, but ave acutely pointed at the tip. The tail is without mark in both sexes and at all ages.

This species is confined to the North Island.



last volume of the Transactions contains an interesting paper by Dr. Otto Finsch, of Bremen, under the title of "Remarks on some Birds of New Zealand," which was read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury on the 5th June, 1872.

In this paper Dr. Finsch, afier mentioning an exhaustive article on the subject which he had prepared for the "Journal für Ornithologie," proceeds to state, for the information of his ornithological friends in New Zealand, "the most important facts" discovered by him before communicating them to the German periodical.

As, however, the critical remarks which Dr. Finsch has embodied in his paper appear to me to deal in many cases rather with assumptious than with "facts," and as the further discussion of debateable points may benefit science, I beg to lay before the Society the following brief notes in reply.