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Sight records of the grey heron allegedly seen in New Zealand in 1947 and 1951 and recorded in the Classified Notes of the OSNZ are shown to be attributable to a youthful confusion with the white-faced heron (Ardea novaehollandiae) then less common than now. The background of this cautionary tale is given, resulting in the specimen of the grey heron in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History documented by Parkes (1974) representing the only genuine evidence of the occurrence of this species within the New Zealand Region. Following W.R.B. Oliver’s opinions expressed in his review of the first OSNZ checklist, some comments are made on the advisability of any checklist committee supporting its decisions on taxonomic or distributional changes by more detailed publications of its reasons. It is not considered sufficient to merge taxa or discard dubious records without documentation.