Graucalus melanops. G. melanops, Vigors and Horsford; Buller, “Birds of New Zealand,” 1st ed. p. 148, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 66; Cat. Birds in British Museum, vol. iv., p. 30. Colluricincla concinna, Hutton, Cat. Birds of New Zealand, p. 15 (1871). Light ash-grey; abdomen and lower tail-coverts white; a broad band of black from the bill through the eye. The two middle tail - feathers dark - grey, lateral ones brownish-black, tipped with white. Quills brownish-black, the outer webs edged with white. Bill and legs black. Length of the wing, 8 in.; of the tarsus, 1.1 in. In the adult bird the forehead, sides of the face and neck, the throat and fore-neck, are black, with a greenish gloss. The immature bird from Australia is described as having wavy bars of dusky black on the throat, but there are none on any of the three New Zealand examples which I have seen.

Art. XXXIII.—A Rare Saurian. By Archdeacon Walsh. [Read before the Auckland Institute, 12th September, 1904.] From time to time over a number of years reports have been brought in by surveyors, bushmen, and others of the existence of a large lizard on the Waoku Plateau. This is an extensive tableland, about 2,000 ft. above sea-level, lying between the Hokianga and Kaipara districts. It is covered with forest, and here and there are several shallow lagoons. It is about these lagoons that the lizard is supposed to make its home. So far as I am aware, no specimens have been captured; or, if they have, they have not been preserved. A dead specimen was, however, washed down the Waima Creek, a stream leading from the plateau, about thirty-five years ago, on the occasion of the hahunga or official reinterment of the bones of Arama Karaka, when it was seen by several European visitors, and was recognised by the Maoris, who were much frightened at its appearance. Being in a partly decomposed condition, however, no attempt, I believe, was made at preservation. From the appearance of this specimen, and from such other slight details as have been gathered from the reports above mentioned, it has been concluded, I understand, that the animal is a species of salamander hitherto undescribed. As I have occasional opportunities of visiting the neighbourhood of the Waoku Plateau, as well as the Waima Valley, where the decomposed specimen was seen, I have made it my business to seek for any information that was to be had on the subject.