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Johann Reinhold Forster (1794) described a handful of new bird taxa in a footnote to his translation of Philip Gidley King’s account of a visit to Norfolk Island. While most of these new bird names have older synonyms, are nomina nuda or are previously published, three of them – Psittacus hypopolius, Columba argetraea and Mostacilla [sic: Motacilla] ventilabrum – are available by description and are open to interpretation as the valid senior names for the Norfolk Island kaka, Norfolk Island fruit pigeon and Norfolk Island grey fantail respectively. However, Forster (1794) based these descriptions on a mixed type series of birds from mainland New Zealand (South Island) and Norfolk Island, and, by lectotypification, these three names are here established for the New Zealand forms, thereby maintaining priority for names already in wide use for the three Norfolk taxa, namely productus Gould, 1836 for the kaka, spadicea Latham, 1801 for the fruit pigeon, and pelzelni G.R. Gray, 1862 for the grey fantail.