Part 3
1900. W. WOLTERSTORFF. Ausgestorbene Riesenvögel. Vortrag, gehalten im Naturwissenschaftlichen Verein zu Magdeburg. Mit zwei Abbildungen. Stuttgart. Verlag von E. Nägele.
1900. A. MERTENS. Die Moas im Naturwissenschaftl. Museum zu Magdeburg. Mit 2 Abbildungen.
In: Jahresbericht Naturwiss. Vereins zu Magdeburg für 1898-1900. (Pp. 1-24 in separate copy.)
1901. W. A. BRYAN. Key to the Birds of the Hawaiian group.
1902. WALTER ROTHSCHILD AND ERNST HARTERT. Further notes on the fauna of the Galápagos Islands.
In Nov. Zool. 1902, pp. 381-418; cf. also Nov. Zool. 1899, pp. 154, 163.
(_Geospiza magnirostris_ and _dentirostris_.)
1902. H. W. HENSHAW. Birds of the Hawaiian Islands, being a complete list of the Birds of the Hawaiian Possessions, with notes on their habits. Honolulu 1902.
1903. GRAHAM RENSHAW. The Black Emu.
In: Zoologist 1903, pp. 81-88.
1903. WILHELM BLASIUS. Der Riesenalk, _Alca impennis_ L. In the New Edition of Naumann called "Naumann, Naturgeschichte der Vögel Mitteleuropas" (sic), vol. XII, pp. 169-208, pls. 17, 17A-17D, 1903.
(Among others the most complete bibliography and very detailed descriptions.)
1903. FLEMING, J. H. On the Passenger Pigeon.
In Auk 1903, p. 66.
{xxvi}
1903. M. GUILLAUME GRANDIDIER. Contribution à l'étude de l'Epiornis de Madagascar.
In: Comptes Rendus des Séances de l'Acad. Sc., Paris 1903 (pp. 1-3 in separate copy.)
1903. G. GRANDIDIER. Note au sujet du squelette de l'_Aepyornis ingens_.
In Bull. Mus. Paris 1903, pp. 318-323, with figures.
1903. PAUL CARIÉ. Observations sur quelques oiseaux de l'ile Maurice.
In Ornis XII, p. 121-128.
(We are informed that neither _Palaeornis echo_--sub nomine _eques_--nor _Nesoenas mayeri_ are extinct.)
1905. A. H. CLARK. Extirpated West Indian Birds.
In Auk 1905, pp. 259-266.
1905. A. H. CLARK. The Lesser Antillean Macaws.
In Auk 1905, pp. 266-273.
1905. A. H. CLARK. The West Indian Parrots.
In Auk 1905, pp. 337-344.
1905. A. H. CLARK. The Greater Antillean Macaws.
In Auk 1905, pp. 345-348.
1905-1906. SIR WALTER BULLER. Supplement to the "Birds of New Zealand." Two volumes.
(Though containing very interesting notes on extinct and threatened birds, these two volumes are rather disappointing. They contain very little that is new, and are mainly composed of quotations from other people's writings or letters. Buller's former great book on the Birds of New Zealand was a most important and creditable work, though not without shortcomings. Our knowledge of New Zealand Birds might have been brought up to date in his supplement, but we cannot say that this has been done properly, and errors are frequent.)
1906. BALDWIN SPENCER. The King Island Emu.
In The Victorian Naturalist XXIII (1906), pp. 139, 140.
(_Dromaius minor_ described.)
1907. WALTER ROTHSCHILD. On Extinct and Vanishing Birds. A short Essay on the Birds which have presumably become extinct within the last 500 years, and also of those birds which are on the verge of extinction, including a few which, though not yet so far gone, are threatened with extinction in the near future.
In Proceed, of the IV Intern. Ornith. Congress, London 1905, pp. 191-217.
* * * * *
{xxvii}
LIST OF PLATES.
1. _Fregilupus varius_. From the plate in the "Volume Centenaire," Mus. Hist. Naturelle, Paris.
2. 1. _Foudia bruante_. From the figure in Daubenton's work.
2. _Necropsar rodericanus_. Made up from description.
3. _Necropsar leguati_. From the type specimen in Liverpool.
3. 1. _Geospiza magnirostris_. From the type specimen in London.
2. _Geospiza strenua_. Head. From specimen at Tring.
3. _Nesoenas mayeri_. From specimen in the British Museum.
4. _Chaunoproctus ferreorostris_ [male] [female]. From the pair in the British Museum.
4. 1. _Hemignathus ellisianus_. After a drawing from the type in the Berlin Museum.
2. _Heterorhynchus lucidus_. From a specimen in the Paris Museum.
3. _Psittirostra psittacea deppei_. From the type in the Tring Museum.
4. _Ciridops anna_. From a specimen in the Tring Museum.
4A. 1. _Moho apicalis_. From specimen in the Tring Museum.
2. _Chaetoptila angustipluma_. From specimen in the Tring Museum.
5. 1. _Miro traversi_. From skin in the Tring Museum.
2. _Traversia lyalli_ [male] and [female]. From the type specimens in the Tring Museum.
3. _Bowdleria rufescens_. From a skin in the Tring Museum.
5A. _Siphonorhis americanus_. From skin in the British Museum.
6. 1. _Nestor norfolcensis_. From the plate in the Bulletin of the Liverpool Museum.
2. Head of _Nestor productus_. From a specimen in the Tring Museum.
7. _Lophopsittacus mauritianus_. From ancient drawing and description.
8. _Necropsittacus borbonicus_. From a description.
9. _Mascarinus mascarinus_. From the drawing in the Volume commémoratif, Centenaire Mus. Paris.
10. _Ara tricolor_. From specimen in the Liverpool Museum. {xxviii}
11. _Ara gossei_. From Gosse's description.
12. _Ara erythrocephala_. From Gosse's description.
13. _Anadorhynchus purpurascens_. From description.
14. _Ara martinicus_. From description.
15. _Ara erythrura_. From description.
16. _Conurus labati_. From description.
17. _Amazona violaceus_. From description.
18. _Amazona martinicana_. From description.
19. _Palaeornis exsul_. From the plate in the "Ibis."
20. _Palaeornis wardi_. From the plate in the "Ibis."
21. _Hemiphaga spadicea_. From the specimen in the Tring Museum.
22. _Alectroenas nitidissima_. From the plate in the Volume commémoratif du Centenaire, Mus. Paris.
23. _Pezophaps solitaria_. Made up from descriptions and ancient drawings.
24. _Didus cucullatus_. From drawings.
24A. _Didus cucullatus_. See explanation, page 172.
24B. _Didus cucullatus_. See explanation, page 172.
24C. _Didus cucullatus_. See explanation, page 172.
25. _Didus solitarius_. From a picture supposed to be taken from a living specimen in Amsterdam, but beak and wing restored.
25A. _Didus solitarius_. After Dubois' description.
25B. 1, 2, 3. _Pezophaps solitarius_. Reproduction of ancient figures, see page 177.
4, 5, 7, 8. _Didus solitarius_. Reproduction of ancient figures, see page 177.
{xxix} 26. 1. _Hypotaenidia pacifica_. From Forster's unpublished drawing in the British Museum.
2. _Pennula sandwichensis_. From the unique specimen in the Leyden Museum.
3. _Pennula millsi_. From skin in the Tring Museum.
27. _Nesolimnas dieffenbachi_. From the unique specimen in the British Museum.
28. 1. _Cabalus modestus_. From skin in the Tring Museum.
2. _Coturnix novaezealandiae_. From skin in the Tring Museum.
29. _Aphanapteryx bonasia_. From ancient drawing.
30. _Erythromachus leguati_. Made up from ancient outline figure and description.
31. _Leguatia gigantea_. Made up from ancient figures and descriptions.
32. _Apterornis coerulescens_. From description.
33. _Notornis alba_. From the plate in "Ibis," 1873.
34. _Notornis hochstetteri_. From the plate in the Zeitschr. f.d. ges. Ornithologie.
35. 1. _Aechmorhynchus cancellatus_. From the plate in Seebohm's "Charadriidae."
2. _Prosobonia leucoptera_. After the unpublished drawings in the British Museum, but the artist has not shown the white patch on the shoulder.
36. _Camptolaimus labradorius_. From the two specimens in the Tring Museum.
37. _Aestrelata caribbaea_. From the type specimen in the Dublin Museum.
38. _Alca impennis_. From the stuffed specimen in the Tring Museum.
39. _Carbo perspicillatus_. From a specimen in the British Museum.
40. _Dromaius peroni_. From the type of the species in the Paris Museum.
41. _Megalapteryx huttoni_. Restored from osteological remains and feathers.
42. _Dinornis ingens_. Restoration from skeleton and some feathers.
* * * * *
{1}
PALAEOCORAX FORBES.
This genus is founded on cranial characters: Basipterygoid processes of parasphenoid present but rudimentary. The vomer broad, flat, and three-pointed in front. Maxillaries anchylosed to the premaxillaries, the latter anchylosed to the expanded ossified base of the nasal septum. The ossified mesethmoid stretches backward and is lodged in the concavity of the upper surface of the vomer, so that it presents a form intermediate between the complete aegithognathous forms, such as _Corvus_, and the compound aegithognathous forms, such as _Gymnorhina_, in which desmognathism was superadded by "anchylosis of the inner edge of the maxillaries with a highly ossified alinasal wall and nasal septum" (Parker).
PALAEOCORAX MORIORUM (FORBES).
_Corvus moriorum_ Forbes, Nature XLVI p. 252 (1892).
_Palaeocorax moriorum_ Forbes, Bull. B.O.C. I p. XXI (1892).
Dr. Forbes says this bird is of about half the size again of a _Corvus cornix_. The principal characters are cranial, and the same as those of the genus.
Habitat: Chatham Islands, and possibly the Middle Island, New Zealand.
Many skulls and bones in the Tring Museum.
PALAEOCORAX ANTIPODUM FORBES.
_Palaeocorax antipodum_ Forbes, Ibis 1893, p. 544.
This is said to be distinguished from _P. moriorum_ by its considerably smaller size. Habitat: North Island, New Zealand.
{3}
FREGILUPUS LESSON.
Huge crest, bill long and curved. One species, extinct.
FREGILUPUS VARIA (BODD.)
(PLATE 1.)
_Huppes ou Callendres_, Voyages du Sieur D.B. (Dubois) aux Iles Dauphine ou Madagascar, et Bourbon ou Mascarenne, etc., p. 172 (1674--Bourbon).
_Huppe du Cap de Bonne Espérance_ Daubenton, Pl. Enl. 697.
_Huppe noire et blanche du Cap de Bonne Espérance_ Montbeillard, Hist. Nat. Ois. VI, p. 463 (1779).
_Madagascar Hoopoe_ Latham, Gen. Syn. B. II pt. I, p. 690 (1783).
_Upupa varia_ Boddaert, Tabl. Pl. Enl. p. 43 (1783--ex Daubenton).
_Upupa capensis_ Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, p. 466 (1788--ex Montbeillard).
_La Huppe grise_ Audebert et Vieillot, Ois. Dor., "Promerops" p. 15 pl. III (1802).
_Le Mérops huppé_ Levaillant, Hist. Nat. Promérops, etc., p. 43, pl. 18 (1806).
_Upupa madagascariensis_ Shaw, Gen. Zool. VIII, pt. I, p. 140 (1812).
_Coracia cristata_ Vieillot, Nouv. Dict. d'Hist. Nat. VIII, p. 3 (1817).
_Pastor upupa_ Wagler, Syst. Avium, Pastor, sp. 13 (1827).
_Fregilupus borbonicus_ Vinson, Bull. Soc. d'Acclimat 1868, p. 627.
_Fregilupus varius_ Hartlaub, Vög. Madagasc. p. 203 (1877); Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XIII p. 194 (1890); Milne-Edwards & Oustalet, Centenaire Mus. Hist. Nat., p. 205, pl. II (1893).
As long ago as 1674 a note about the "Huppe" exists, by "Le Sieur D.B.," _i.e._, Dubois. He says, when describing the birds of Réunion (translated): "Hoopoes or 'Callendres,' having a white tuft on the head, the rest of the plumage white and grey, the bill and the feet like a bird of prey; they are a little larger than the young pigeons; this is another good game (_i.e._, to eat) when it is fat."
This description has generally been accepted as referring to the _Fregilupus_, though that of the bill and feet is then due to an error of the author, for _Fregilupus_ has the bill and feet of a member of the _Sturnidae_ or family of Starlings.
Good descriptions and representations of the "Huppe" have been given in many places (see literature), but whether they were taken from males or females is generally not known. The sexes seem to be alike in colour, but the female is smaller, and has a shorter and straighter bill than the male. At least, this is the conclusion of Dr. Hartert, who saw the four examples in the museum at Troyes. As far as he could see through the glass all four {4} seemed to be adult birds, but two were larger with longer and more curved bills, two smaller and with shorter and straighter beaks, so that they are evidently two pairs.
This bird seems to have become extirpated about the middle of the last century. The late Monsieur Pollen wrote in 1868 (translated): "This species has become so rare that one did not hear them mentioned for a dozen years. It has been destroyed in all the littoral districts, and even in the mountains near the coast. Trustworthy persons, however, have assured us that they must still exist in the forests of the interior, near St. Joseph. The old creoles told me that, in their youth, these birds were still common, and that they were so stupid that one could kill them with sticks. They call this bird the "Hoopoe." It is, therefore, not wrong what a distinguished inhabitant of Réunion, Mr. A. Legras, wrote about this bird with the following words: "The Hoopoe has become so rare that we have hardly seen a dozen in our wanderings to discover birds; we were even grieved to search for it in vain in our museum."
We are certain that _Fregilupus_ existed still on Réunion in 1835, as Monsieur Desjardins, living on Mauritius, wrote in a manuscript formerly belonging to the late Professor Milne-Edwards: "My friend, Marcelin Sauzier, has sent me four alive from Bourbon in May, 1835. They eat everything. Two have escaped some months afterwards, and it might well happen that they will stock our forests."
It seems, indeed, that specimens were killed in 1837 on Mauritius, where they did not originally exist. Verreaux shot an example in Réunion in 1832.
The names "La Huppe du Cap" and "_Upupa madagascariensis_" arose out of the mistaken notions that this bird lived in South Africa or Madagascar, but we know now that its real home was Réunion or Bourbon.
WE ARE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING SPECIMENS PRESERVED IN COLLECTIONS.
2 stuffed ones, one in good, one in bad condition, and two in spirits, in the Paris Museum.
4 stuffed in Troyes.
1 stuffed, from the Riocour collection, in the British Museum.
1 in the Florence Museum.
1 in Turin.
1 in Pisa.
1, rather poor and old, in Leyden.
1 in Stockholm.
1 in the Museum at Port Louis, on the island of Mauritius.
1 in the collection of the late Baron de Selys Longchamps.
1 in Genoa.
{5}
NECROPSAR GÜNTHER & NEWTON.
The authors state that this genus was very closely allied to _Fregilupus_, and, besides some minor differences, give as the principal difference the shorter and less curved bill.
NECROPSAR RODERICANUS GÜNTH. & NEWT.
(PLATE 2, FIG. 2.)
_Necropsar rodericanus_ Günther & Newton, Phil. Trans. vol. 168, p. 427, pl. XLII, figs. A-G (1879).
The original description given by the anonymous author of the "Relation de l'Ile Rodrigue" is as follows:--"These birds are a little larger than a blackbird, and have white plumage, part of the wings and the tail black, the beak and the legs yellow, and make a wonderful warbling." Our author also says they inhabited the Islet au Mât, and fed on seabirds' eggs and dead turtle.
The bird evidently became extinct on Rodriguez before 1730, and lingered a little longer on the outlying islets. Only known from bones, mostly collected by the Rev. H. H. Slater, and the above description.
Habitat: Rodriguez and neighbouring islets.
There is one tibia in the Tring Museum.
The figure is coloured according to the description, while the shape of the bird is evident from its bones and relation. {6}
NECROPSAR LEGUATI FORBES.
(PLATE 2, FIG. 3.)
_Necropsar leguati_ Forbes, Bull. Liverp. Mus. I, p. 34, pl. _Sturnidae_ I (1897-1898).
Dr. Forbes' description is as follows:--"General colour white everywhere, except on the outer webs of distal half of the primaries and secondaries and the outer webs of the newly moulted and both webs of the unmoulted rectrices, which are marked with lighter or darker ferruginous."
Dr. Forbes then gives an exhaustive description of the structure, to which I refer my readers, and the following measurements:--
Culmen 32 mm. Wing 109 " Tail 98 " Tarsus 31.5 "
I should have been inclined to consider this bird an albinistic specimen of the bird described in "Relation de l'Ile Rodrigue," but for the fact that the tibia of _Necropsar rodericanus_ is 52-59 mm. in length, while this is only 46 mm. in length, while the metatarsus measures 31.5 mm. as opposed to 36-41 mm. in _N. rodericanus_. I cannot accept the theory that this is the Islet au Mât bird, and therefore different from _N. rodericanus_, as the islet is too close to Rodriguez to have had a different starling. I therefore believe this bird to have been an albinistic specimen of the Mauritius species of _Necropsar_, for there can be little doubt that it is albinistic, as the ferruginous colour is much stronger on one wing than on the other; and I conclude that the colour in the wings and tail in normal specimens was black like the Rodriguez bird, and that _N. leguati_ was a close ally of _N. rodericanus_, from which it differed principally in its much smaller size.
Habitat doubtful.--The type specimen bears Lord Derby's Museum number, 1792, and a label of Verreaux giving Madagascar as the habitat, which is certainly erroneous.
{7}
FOUDIA BRUANTE (P.L.S. MÜLL.)
(PLATE 2, FIG. 1.)
_Bruant de l'isle de Bourbon_ Daubenton, Pl. Enl. 321.
_Le Mordoré_, Montbeillard, Hist. Nat. Ois., Quarto Edition IV., p. 366 (1778--Bourbon).
_Fringilla bruante_ P.L.S. Müll., Natursyst., Suppl. p. 164, No. 51 (1776--ex Daubenton Pl. enl).
_Emberiza fuscofulva_ Boddaert, Table Pl. Enl. p. 20 (1783--based on Pl. Enl. 321 and Montbeillard's "Morderé").
_Emberiza borbonica_ Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I p. 886 (1788--ex Daubenton and Montbeillard).
_Foudia bruante_ Newton, Trans. Norf. and Norw. Nat. Soc. IV., pp. 543 and 548 (1889).
_Nesacanthis fusco-fulvus_ Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XIII p. 484 (1890).
We know absolutely nothing about this bird, except Daubenton's figure and the description by Montbeillard. In the plate the whole body, including the back, is uniform red, about the same red as in other species of _Foudia_, while the wings and tail are dark brown with yellowish-brown borders. In the description the body plumage is described as rufous ("morderé") and the wings, wing-coverts and tail as more or less bright rufous ("d'un mordoré plus ou moins clair"). The size is said to be about that of a Bunting, but the tail shorter and the wings longer.
According to Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B. XIII, p. 484) "it has generally been considered identical with _Foudia madagascariensis_," but the latter has the back marked with longitudinal black spots, while both the figure and description of _F. bruante_ represent a uniform red upperside; moreover the locality of the latter is expressly stated, and as we know other forms of _Foudia_ from the Seychelles, Mauritius, Comoros, Aldabra and Madagascar, we have no reason to doubt the statement. We are not aware of any specimen existing of this doubtless extinct bird, though it would be worth while to search the Paris Museum for this treasure.
Habitat: Réunion or Bourbon.
{9}
CHAUNOPROCTUS BP.
_Chaunoproctus Bonaparte_, Consp. Av. I p. 526 (1850).
The genus _Chaunoproctus_ contains only one species, which is characterized by its enormous bill, the depth of the mandible being greater than the distance between the nasal apertures. The cutting-edge of the maxilla is nearly straight, and there is no tooth in the posterior half of the maxilla. The total length is about seven to eight inches. The adult male has red in the plumage, the female is brown, above and below.
Dr. Hartert (Vögel pal. Fauna I, p. 115) is of opinion that this bird is connected with _Carpodacus_ and allies, and not with the Greenfinches and Hawfinches, among which it is placed in the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum.
CHAUNOPROCTUS FERREOROSTRIS (VIG.)
(PLATE 3, FIG. 4.)
_Coccothraustes ferreorostris_ (_sic_) Vigors, Zool. Journ. IV p. 354 (1828); id. in Beechey's Voy. Blossom, p. 22, pl. 8 (1839).
_Fringilla papa_ Kittlitz, Mém. Acad. Imp. Sc. Petersbourg I p. 239, pl. 15 (1830); id. Kupfertaf. Vög. p. 24, pl. 32, 2 (1832).
_Chaunoproctus papa_ Bonaparte, Consp. I p. 526 (1850); Bp. and Schlegel, Monogr. Loxiens p. 32 pls. 37, 38 (1850).
_Chaunoproctus ferreirostris_ Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XII p. 31 (1888).
Vigors' original description, translated from the Latin, is as follows: "Dark brown; head, breast and upper part of abdomen scarlet. Bill very strong, feet plumbeous. Length of body 8½, bill 7/8, at gape 1-3/16, height 7/8; wings from the carpus to the third quill 4½; tail 3, tarsus 7/8 inches."
In the "Catalogue of Birds," XII, p. 31, both sexes are carefully described.
It appears that only one pair, now in the British Museum, was obtained during Captain Beechey's voyage. Curiously enough, Vigors suggested that the brilliantly coloured adult male might be the young, the female the adult bird, "as is the case in the Pine-Grosbeak" (_Sic!_).
Kittlitz, who visited the largest of the Bonin Islands in May, 1828, obtained a number of specimens, of which some are in St. Petersburg, two in Frankfurt-a.-M., one or two in Leyden, and, I believe, in Paris. {10} These seem to be all the specimens known in European museums. Mr. Seebohm's collector, the late Holst, failed to obtain it, and Mr. Alan Owston's men, who several times went to the Bonin group to obtain it, and who were promised good prices for specimens, did not get one. I am therefore convinced that for some unknown reason this bird became extinct, though there is still the possibility that the recent collectors did not collect on the main island of the group, which alone was visited by Kittlitz.
Kittlitz tells us that he found it in the woods along the coast, but not numerous. That it keeps concealed, is very phlegmatic, and is so little shy that one is obliged to go back for some distance, before shooting, if one wishes to preserve the specimen. Kittlitz saw it but seldom on high trees, mostly on the ground. Its frequently heard note is a very fine piping sound. In the crop and stomach small fruit and buds of one kind of tree were found.
Habitat: The largest of the Bonin Islands, south of Japan.
{11}
GEOSPIZA MAGNIROSTRIS GOULD.
(PLATE 3, FIG. 1.)
_Geospiza magnirostris_ Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1837, p. 5 (Galapagos Islands); Rothschild & Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1899 p. 154, 1902 p. 388; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XII, pp. 6, 7 (Fig.); Ridgway, B. North and Middle America I, p. 495 (1901).
As explained in Nov. Zool. 1899, p. 154, it is uncertain where Darwin obtained the type specimens of Gould's _G. magnirostris_, as "Unfortunately, most of the specimens of the finch-tribe were mingled together," as Darwin tells us in his "Journal of Researches" (New Edition 1890, p. 420), and he had only "strong reasons to suspect that some of the species of the sub-group _Geospiza_ are confined to separate islands." We are, however, convinced that the types of _G. magnirostris_ can only have come from Charles Island, where it is, probably, the representative of _G. strenua strenua_. It seems, however, that _G. magnirostris_ exists no longer, for all subsequent collectors have failed to obtain specimens, unless an immature specimen in the U. S. Nat. Mus., from Charles Island (No. 115,905), is a young _magnirostris_ (cf. Nov. Zool. 1902, p. 388).
The dimensions of the three black specimens in the British Museum are as follows: Culmen 26.5, 27, 27; height of bill at base 23.5-24; wing 91, 91, 95; tarsus 25 mm. These measurements--a culmen of over 26.5 and a wing of 91 mm. combined--do not occur among our large series of _strenua_, and therefore it is hardly possible that _G. magnirostris_ is composed of huge examples of _strenua_ only.
As Charles Island has been inhabited for many years it is not at all unlikely that a bird became extinct on that place. On plate 3 is figured _G. magnirostris_ and a head of _G. strenua_ for comparison. {12}
GEOSPIZA DENTIROSTRIS GOULD.