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Rh of a fine series of specimens in the Canterbury Museum, showing the transitional changes of phrmage.

I communicated the result to Capt. Hutton jong before the appearance of his "Catalogue," and the descriptive notes which I made at the time will be found at page 149 of my "Birds of New Zealand."

I confess, however, that the subject is still beset with some difficulty in my own mind. Supposing the plumage of C. cinereus to be the first year's dress of C. carunculatus, it seems to me quite inexplicable that the bird has never been met with in that state in the North Island. Capt. Hutton suggests that this is due to the comparative scarcity of the species at the North. But during several years' residence in the Province of Wellington I obtained probably upwards of fifty specimens, at varions times, without ever detecting any sign of this immature condition of plumage.

Admitting the comparative searcity of the species, one would naturally suppose that the younger birds would be more likely to fall into the collecior's hands than the fully adult ones. It may be suggested whethor the condition of the Canterbury Museum specimens has not possibly resulted from intercrossing; for we have not heard of any further examples being obtained. At any rate, till a specimen in the supposcd immature dress has actually been taken in the North Island, the point cannot, I think, be considered finally set at rest.

In Dr. Dieffenbach's Report to the New Zealand Company, which appears in the twelfth Report of the Directors (April, 1844), I find the following mention of this species:—"Amongst the thrushes I must name, first, the Tierawaki, with two yellow appendages at the angle of its mouth, of the form and dimensions of a cucumber seed. This bird is of the size of a blackbird, with beak and feet similar to those parts in the latter. Its plumage is a glossy black; the cover-feathers of its wing and its back are of a fine red brown. I saw a variety, or perhaps another species, with plumage of variable shades of sepia."

Aplonis obscurus, Du Bus.

Both this species and Aplonis zealandicus (Gray) were omitted in my work, as I could not find the smallest evidence of the type specimens having come from New Zealand.

Rallus philippensis, Linn.

I entirely concur with Dr. Vinsch regarding the wide geographic range of this species, the plumage being too variable to admit of the recognition of several local specics, as some naturalists have suggested. But I cannot think that he is justified in retaining M. Lesson's name of Rallus pectoralis.

Allowing that the varieties that have been brought from Polynesia proper,