Platycercus alpinus, Buller. Mr. Reischek met with this little parakeet in the scrub on the summit of Mount Alexander (above Lake Brunner on the West Coast); and he met with the species again on the Hen, where he shot two, and on the Little Barrier, where he observed another pair, and killed the male. While on this subject I may be permitted to refer to a passage in the paper read by Mr. Travers last year, “On the Distribution of New Zealand Birds.”* See Trans. N.Z. Inst., xv., art. xiv. He explains that, in making his analysis of genera and species, he has “assumed that Dr. Buller has seen good reasons for reaffirming Platycercus alpinus as a species in the Manual, notwithstanding the remarks on the subject in his larger work.” It is true that I yielded to the arguments of Dr. Finsch and agreed to sink my Platycercus alpinus, as a species, and treated it in the text of my work as the young of Platycercus auriceps. In the Introduction, however, to the book, I gave my reasons for reinstating this form. I there explained that more than twenty living examples of this bird had recently been brought to England; that it was to be seen alive in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London; and that the validity of the species had thus been established beyond all doubt. Charadrius fulvus. In April, 1881, Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, the Curator of the Auckland Museum, wrote informing me that he had obtained two specimens (male and female) of the Golden Plover, both shot on the Manukau Harbour; and he afterwards made an interesting communication on the subject to the Auckland Institute (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xiv., p. 264). Of this rare visitant, Mr. C. H. Robson, with his usual activity in the cause of science, has obtained and forwarded to me a fine pair from Portland Island. I take this opportunity of exhibiting them, and also of communicating to the society some notes on this bird by my correspondent who was fortunate enough to discover its breeding place and to obtain its eggs.

Art. XXIV.—On Hieracidea novæ-zealandiæ, and H. brunnea. By W. W. Smith. Communicated by Dr. Buller, C.M.G., F.R.S. [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 31st October, 1883.] In the summer and autumn of 1876 I shot several specimens of “Sparrow Hawk,” varying so much in size that I was often surprised at the extraordinary difference in the specimens I obtained. Taking as I did at the time