Part 9

_Totanus_ (_Tryngites?_) _cancellatus_ Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Islands Pac. Ocean, p. 51 (1859).

_Phegornis cancellatus_ Seebohm, Geogr. Distrib. Charadr. p. 451, pl. 17 (1888).

_Aechmorhynchus cancellatus_ Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXIV, p. 525 (1896).

"Bill short, straight, and slender; wings long, first, second, and third quills very nearly equal; tertiaries but very little longer than the secondaries; tail rather long, wide, rounded; legs and toes long, the former robust; tibia feathered for more than half its length. A distinct stripe over and behind the eye ashy-white. Entire upper parts umber-brown, unspotted on the top of the head, but on the other upper parts edged and tipped with ashy-white and reddish fulvous. Tail-feathers umber-brown, with irregular and imperfect transverse narrow bands of ashy and pale reddish-white, and tipped with the same. Underparts white, with a tinge of ashy; throat and middle of the abdomen unspotted; breast, sides, and under coverts of the tail spotted, and with irregular transverse bars of brown, the latter most apparent on the sides, flanks, and under tail-coverts. Under wing-coverts ashy-white, irregularly spotted with brown. Bill greenish, darker at the tip; legs dark green. Sexes very nearly alike, female slightly paler. (Cassin.)" {120}

I have here given the synonymy of this bird, as it has now been generally accepted by Seebohm, Sharpe, and others. An actual comparison of the types would, however, be very desirable, but, unfortunately, we do not know where the type of Latham is, and if it still exists. Christmas Island lies much to the north of the Paumotu group! As no specimens have been obtained since the U.S. Exploring Expedition, we may safely suppose that the species has ceased to exist for some reason.

Habitat: "Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean and Paumotu Islands."

{121}

GALLINAGO CHATHAMICA FORBES.

_Gallinago chathamica_ Forbes, Ibis 1893, p. 545.

Evidently a species allied to _G. pusilla_, but very much larger. Bill three inches long.

Habitat: Chatham Islands.

Several skulls and a few bones in the Tring Museum. This is a snipe only a little larger than the existing _Gallinago aucklandica_.

{123}

HYPOTAENIDIA (?) PACIFICUS (GM.)

(PLATE 26.)

_Pacific rail_ Latham, Gen. Syn. III, pt. I, p. 255 (1785).

_Rallus pacificus_ Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, p. 717 (1788).

Forster's description is as follows, in translation: "Black with white spots or bars; abdomen, throat, and eyebrow white; hind neck ferruginous; breast grey; bill blood-red; iris red. Bill straight, compressed, narrowed at the top, thicker at the base, and blood-red. The mandibles subequal, pointed; the upper slightly curved, with the tip pale fuscous; gape medium. Nostrils almost at the base of bill, linear. Eyes placed above the gape of the mouth. Iris blood-red. Feet four-toed, split, built for running, flesh coloured. Femora semi-bare, slender, of medium length.

"Tibiae slightly compressed, shorter than the femora. Four toes, slender, of which three point forward (are front toes). The middle one almost as long as the Tibia, the side ones of equal length shorter, the back one short, raised from the ground. Nails short, small, slightly incurved, pointed, and light coloured. Head oval, slightly depressed, fuscous. A superciliary line from bill to occiput whitish. Throat white. Hindneck ferruginous. Neck very short. Back and rump black, sparsely dotted with minute white dots. Breast bluish grey. Abdomen, crissum, and loins white. Wings short, wholly black, variegated with broken white bands. Remiges short. Rectrices extremely short, black spotted with white, hardly to be distinguished from the coverts.

Total length from bill to tail 9 inches. Total length to middle toe 12¾ " Bill 1-1/10 " Tibiae 2 " Middle toe 1-3/10 " "

Mr. Keulemans' plate was done from Forster's unpublished drawing in the British Museum, and no specimen is in existence. The legs should, however, be less bright red, more flesh-colour.

Habitat: Tahiti, but evidently long extinct.

This bird, according to Forster, was called "Oomnaa" or "Eboonaa," on Otaheite, and the neighbouring islands.

{125}

NESOLIMNAS ANDREWS.

Differs from _Cabalus_ by the relatively shorter bill; by having the whole culmen convex with the tip sharply decurved, by having a close instead of a loose plumage, and a much less reduced sternum, with a well-developed instead of almost obsolete keel. Type of genus _Nesolimnas dieffenbachi_ (Gray).

NESOLIMNAS DIEFFENBACHII GRAY.

(PLATE 27.)

_Rallus Dieffenbachii_ Gray, Dieffenb., Trav. N.Z. II App. p. 197 (1843).

_Ocydromus dieffenbachi_ Gray, Voy. Ereb. and Terr., Birds p. 14, pl. 15 (1846).

_Hypotaenidia dieffenbachi_ Bonaparte, C. R. XLIII, p. 599 (1856).

_Cabalus dieffenbachi_ Sharpe, Voy. Ereb. and Terr., Birds p. 29, pl. 15 (1875), id., Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXIII p. 47 (1894).

_Nesolimnas dieffenbachi_ Andrews, Novit. Zool. III. p. 266, pl. X, figs 3-15 (1896).

Adult: "General colour above, brown, banded on the mantle and scapulars, and spotted on the upper back with ochreous buff, these buff markings being margined with black, which takes the form of broad bars on the mantle; lower back and rump uniform brown; upper tail coverts brown, barred across with light rufous and black; lesser wing coverts like the back; median and greater coverts, as well as the primary coverts and quills, light chestnut, barred with black, the inner secondaries spotted and barred with ochre and black, like the back; tail feathers brown, mottled with chestnut near the base; crown of the head and nape uniform brown, followed by an indistinct patch of chestnut on the hindneck; lores dull rufous, surmounted by a broad line of bluish grey, extending from the base of the nostrils to the sides of the nape; rest of the sides of the face bluish grey, extending on to the lower throat; this grey area of the face separated from the grey eyebrow by a broad band of dark chestnut, which extends from the lores through the eye along the upper part of the ear-coverts; chin and upper throat white; lower throat black, barred across with white; fore neck and chest ochreous buff, banded rather narrowly with black, this pattern of colouration {126} extending up the sides of the neck to the chestnut on the ear coverts; lower breast and abdomen black, banded with white, the light bars on the flanks and vent feathers being tinged with ochreous; under-tail coverts broadly banded with black and ochre; under-wing coverts and axillaries blackish, barred with white; under surface of quills chestnut, with broad black bars.

Wing 4.8 inches, culmen 1.35, tail 2.7" (Sharpe).

Habitat: Chatham Islands.

The type and only known specimen is that in the British Museum.

{127}

CABALUS HUTTON.

_Cabalus_ Hutton, Trans. N.Z. Inst. Vol. VI p. 108, pl. XX (1874--Type and unique species _Cabalus modestus_).

Captain Hutton characterized his new genus as follows: "Bill longer than the head, moderately slender and slightly curved, compressed in the middle and slightly expanding towards the tip; nostrils placed in a membranous groove which extends beyond the middle of the bill, openings exposed, oval, near the middle of the groove. Wings very short, rounded; quills soft, the outer webs as soft as the inner, fourth and fifth the longest, first nearly as long as the second; a short, compressed claw at the end of the thumb. Tail very short and soft, hidden by the coverts. Tarsi moderate, shorter than the middle toe, flattened in front, and covered with transverse scales; toes long and slender, inner nearly as long as the outer, hind toe short, very slender, and placed on the inner side of the tarsus; claws short, compressed, blunt.

"The bird is incapable of flight, and the stomach of the specimen, dissected by Dr. Knox, contained only the legs and elytra of beetles."

Captain Hutton also adds, l.c., a valuable description of the skeleton.

One species known.

CABALUS MODESTUS (HUTTON).

(PLATE 28.)

_Rallus modestus_ Hutton, Ibis 1872, p. 247. (Mangare, Chatham Islands.)

_Cabalus modestus_ Hutton, Trans. New Zeal. Inst. VI p. 108. (The genus _Cabalus_ established.)

_Rallus dieffenbachii_ juv. Buller, B. New Zealand, Ed. I pp. 179, 180; Ed. II p. 121 (1888).

_Cabalus dieffenbachii_ (part., juv.!) Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXIII p. 47 (1894); corr. p. 331.

_Cabalus modestus_ Forbes, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club. No. IV. p. XX (Dec. 1892); Salvadori, op. cit. V p. XXIII (Jan., 1893); Forbes, Ibis 1893, pp. 532, 544, pl. XIV, fig. 4, egg; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXIII p. 331 (1893); Buller, Suppl. B.N.Z. I p. 45, pl. III (1905).

_Ocydromus pygmaeus_ Forbes, Nature XLVI, p. 252 (1892--nomen nudum! cf. Ibis 1893, p. 544).

Captain Hutton (Ibis 1872, p. 247) described this interesting species as follows: "Olivaceous brown, bases of the feathers plumbeous; feathers of the breast slightly tipped with pale fulvous, those of the abdomen and flanks with two narrow bars of the same colour; {128} throat dark grey, each feather slightly tipped with brown. Quills soft brown, the first three faintly barred with reddish fulvous, fourth and fifth the longest. Tail very soft and short, brown. Irides light brown, bill and legs light brown. Length 8.75 inches, wing 3.15, bill from gape 1.4, tarsus 1, middle toe and claw 1.4.

_Young._ Uniform brownish black.

A single specimen and young from Mangare; also a specimen in spirits."

The author knew perfectly well what he was doing when he described this excellent species. Sir Walter Buller afterwards (B. New Zealand, Ed. I, pp. 179, 180) declared "after carefully comparing it with the type of _Rallus dieffenbachii_, and submitting the matter to the judgment of other competent ornithologists, I have no hesitation in considering it the same species, in an immature state of plumage." (_Sic!_) Unfortunately, Dr. Sharpe, in the Catalogue of Birds XXIII, repeated Buller's error, and, on Plate VI, figured _Cabalus modestus_ under the name of _Cabalus dieffenbachii_, though the latter is not congeneric with _C. modestus_, and must be called _Nesolimnas dieffenbachii_, while the third form included in _Cabalus_ by Dr. Sharpe, viz. _sylvestris_ of Lord Howe's Island, must also be separated genetically from _Cabalus_.

Formerly _Cabalus modestus_ inhabited Great Chatham Island, as Dr. Forbes proved by bones found by himself at Warekauri, but when the species was discovered it existed there no more, though being plentiful on the little outlying island of Mangare. Unfortunately even there it is evidently extinct now, this island being overrun with cats and rats, besides which, according to Buller, the original vegetation has been ruthlessly burnt down for the purpose of sowing grass-seed, as even this bleak little island has been claimed by an enterprising sheep-farmer. Fortunately a good many specimens have been secured by the late W. Hawkins. I have fifteen in my museum, and there are specimens in the British Museum, in Liverpool, and one in Cambridge. Henry Palmer failed to get specimens when he visited Mangare.

I have also the egg described and figured in the Ibis by Dr. Forbes. It measures 40 by 21.4 mm., and is creamy white, with faint pale reddish and purplish roundish spots.

Habitat: Chatham Islands, east of New Zealand.

{129}

OCYDROMUS MINOR HAMILTON.

_Ocydromus sp._ Hamilton, Trans. N.Z. Inst. XXV, p. 103 (1893).

_Ocydromus minor_ Hamilton (nec. Forbes) l.c.

This species is nearest allied to _sylvestris_ Scl., which has quite erroneously been placed in the genus _Cabalus_ by Dr. Sharpe; _sylvestris_ will have to form the type of a new genus, but until the skull of _minor_ is known I prefer to leave the latter temporarily in _Ocydromus_.

The present species is known from two pelves, seven femora, six tibiae, and five metatarsi, as well as the front portion of a sternum. The measurements all show that _minor_ was a slightly larger form than _sylvestris_, but owing to having a much shorter tibio-tarsus it must have been a much stumpier bird.

_Minor._ _Sylvestris._

Pelvis extreme length 65 mm. 62.5 mm. Pelvis extreme breadth 28 " 25 " Femur length 64 " 63 " Tibio-tarsus length 93 " 98 " Tarso-metatarsus length 53 " 51 " Sternum greatest width 24.5 " 24.5 "

Habitat: Middle Island, New Zealand. Extinct.

OCYDROMUS INSIGNIS FORBES.

_Ocydromus insignis_ Forbes, Trans. N.Z. Inst. XXIV, p. 188 (1892--insufficient description).

This bird "far exceeded in size any of the existing species of _Ocydromus_." That is all that is published about this bird.

Habitat: Middle Island, New Zealand.

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APHANAPTERYX FRAUENFELD.

Bill produced, not cut short, rather curved. The nostrils are exposed and situated at the base of the bill. Halluces of the naked fowl-like legs of moderate length. Front of legs apparently scutellated. Wings abortive, no rectrices apparent.

APHANAPTERYX BONASIA SELYS.

(PLATE 29.)

_A Hen_ Sir Thomas Herbert, A relation of some years' Travaile (1626).

_Velt-hoenders_ Reyer Cornelisz, Van der Hagen's voyage (1646).

_Poules rouges au bec de Becasse_ Cauche, Rélations véritables et curieuses de l'Isle de Madagascar (1651).

_Apterornis bonasia_ Edm. de Sélys-Longchamps, Revue Zoologique, p. 292 (1848).

_Didus herberti_ Schlegel, Vers. Med. Ak. Wetensch., II, p. 256 (1854).

_Didus broecki_ Schlegel, l.c.

_Aphanapteryx imperialis_ Frauenfeld, Neu aufgef. Abbild. Dronte, p. 6 (1868).

_Aphanapteryx broeckii_ Milne-Edwards, Ann. Sci. Nat. (5), X, pp. 325-346, pls. 15-18 (1868).

_Pezophaps broeckii_ Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Struthiones, p. 4 (1873).

I here give a translation of Frauenfeld's original diagnosis: "Of the size of a fowl, of a uniform brown red all over. Bill and legs dark. Iris yellowish. Feathers decomposed, as in the _Apteryx_, somewhat lengthened on the nape."

This description was made by Frauenfeld from a drawing by G. Hoefnagels, in the Imperial Library, Vienna, executed about the year 1610, and, together with that of the Dodo, apparently drawn from life in the Imperial Menagerie at Ebersdorf. This drawing proves Van den Broecke, Herbert, and Cauche's descriptions to have been correct, though their drawings are somewhat startlingly different in shape. Only known from these four drawings and osseous remains. 18 fragments of beaks, 5 pelves, 35 tibiae, 1 sacrum and fragments, and 1 vertebra in the Tring Museum.

Habitat: Mauritius.

{133}

DIAPHORAPTERYX FORBES.

This genus is closely allied to _Aphanapteryx_ and _Erythromachus_, but, on the whole, is nearer to _Aphanapteryx_. It differs from both these genera and _Ocydromus_ in the large protuberances on the basi-temporal region of the skull, and the tarso-metatarsus was much shorter than in _Aphanapteryx_. For complete diagnosis of this genus see Andrews in Novitates Zoologicae, Vol. III, pp. 73-76 (1896).

DIAPHORAPTERYX HAWKINSI (FORBES).

_Aphanapteryx hawkinsi_ Forbes, Nature XLVI, p. 252.

_Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi_ Forbes, Bull. B.O.C.I. p. XXI, 1893.

The remains of this bird were first sent to Dr. H. O. Forbes in 1892 by the late W. Hawkins, from the Chatham Islands, 500 miles E.S.E. of New Zealand. It appears to have been confined to the Island of Wharekauri. Dr. Forbes subsequently went to the Chathams himself and collected a large number of bones of various extinct birds, including those of _Diaphorapteryx_. In 1895 I received a consignment of bones through the agency of Mr. Dannefaerd, from the Chathams, such as has never been equalled from any deposit elsewhere, for literally there were many hundreds of thousands of bones of a considerable number of species of birds. From this collection Mr. C. W. Andrews was able to draw up a most minute description of the skeleton of _Diaphorapteryx_, founded on several practically complete skeletons, some thirty or more skulls, and several thousand individual bones of various portions of the skeleton. This description, published in Novitates Zoologicae, Vol. III, pp. 73-84, is too long for reproduction here, and so I must refer my readers to it.

This bird, as well as the _Palaeolimnas_, shows an apparent relationship between the Chatham Islands and the Mascarene Islands; but I believe that {134} this is not a real relationship, as has been asserted, due to a former land-connection, but merely a case of parallel development owing to similar conditions of existence.

Habitat: Wharekauri Island, Chatham Islands.

In the Tring Museum are two complete skeletons, more than a thousand bones, and about fifteen skulls.

One almost complete skeleton, and the type, skull, and bones, are in the British Museum.

{135}

ERYTHROMACHUS MILNE-EDWARDS.

"Legs stout, made for running, and from a quarter to one-fifth shorter than in _Ocydromus_, the three anterior digits well developed and the hallux very small. Body less massive than in _Ocydromus_, with the wings slightly more developed, but not serviceable for flight. Head small; bill red, straight, pointed, and about 60 mm. = 2.4 inches. A red naked patch round the eye; plumage pale grey."

ERYTHROMACHUS LEGUATI MILNE-EDWARDS.

_Gelinote_ Leguat, t. II p. 71 (1708).

_Erythromachus leguati_ Milne-Edwards, Ann. Sci. Nat. (5) XIX, pp. 6, 7, pls. XI, XII (1874).

_Aphanopteryx leguati_ Günther & E. Newton, Phil. Trans. Vol. 168, pp. 431-432, pl. XLIII (1879).

Of the older writers only Leguat appears to have described the Rodriguez flightless rail. There are several references to "_Hens_," "_Veld Hoenders_," &c., but all appear to refer to the Mauritius bird _Aphanapteryx bonasia_. Leguat's description is as follows:--

"Our 'gelinotes' are fat all the year round and of a most delicate taste. Their colour is always of a bright grey, and there is very little difference in plumage between the two sexes. They hide their nests so well that we could not find them out, and consequently did not taste their eggs. They have a red naked area round their eyes, their beaks are straight and pointed, near two and two-fifths inches long, and red also. They cannot fly, their fat makes them too heavy for it. If you offer them anything red, they are so angry they will fly at you to catch it out of your hand, and in the heat of the combat we had an opportunity to take them with ease."

Quite extinct. Only known from descriptions and osseous remains. One tibia in the Tring Museum.

Habitat: Rodriguez Island.

{137}

PENNULA DOLE.

_Pennula_ Dole, Hawaiian Alman. 1879 p. 54 (Reprint in Ibis 1880 p. 241).

I believe that the genus _Pennula_ should be placed near _Porzanula_, but its wings are softer, the rectrices are next to invisible, but can be felt, as they have stiff shafts and are about 13 mm. long, though being entirely hidden by the soft tail-coverts. The tibia is bare for about 7 mm., the metatarsus covered in front with nearly a dozen transverse, very distinct scales, and distinctly reticulated behind. The bill much as in _Poliolimnas_ and _Porzanula_.

Two species can be recognized: _Pennula millsi_, with a uniform upper surface, and _Pennula sandwichensis_, with a distinctly spotted upper side. Both forms are now extinct.

PENNULA MILLSI DOLE.

MOHO OF THE NATIVES.

(PLATE 26, FIG. 3.)

_Pennula millei_ (misprint for _millsi_) Dole, Hawaiian Almanac 1879 p. 54 (reprint in Ibis 1880 p. 241. "Uplands of Hawaii: named in honour of Mr. Mills, spec. in Mills's Coll., nearly extinct"); Rothsch., Avif. Laysan, etc., p. 241 pl. LXXVI.

_Pennula ecaudata_ apud Wilson & Evans, Aves. Hawaii., part V, text and plate.

All we know of this bird are the five specimens caught by an old native bird-catcher named Hawelu for the late Mr. Mills of Hawaii. Two of these are now in my Museum, one in Cambridge, and two in the Bishop-Pauahi Museum in Honolulu. There can be no doubt that this bird is now extinct. All recent attempts to find specimens have been futile. Mr. Palmer, whom I sent a specially trained dog, also failed to find even traces of it. It lived formerly in the country between Hilo and the volcano Kilauea, in places where thick grass, _Vaccinium_ and _Dianella_, forms the thickest cover possible. In former times the "Moho" was a dainty on the tables of the Hawaiian kings, but its disappearance is probably due to the introduction of the obnoxious mongoose and to bush fires. {138}

PENNULA SANDWICHENSIS (GM.)

(PLATE 26, FIG. 2.)

_Rallus Sandwichensis_ Gmelin, Syst. Nat I p. 717 (1788--ex Latham! "Habitat exilis in insulis Sandwich").

_Pennula Wilsoni_ Finsch, Notes Leyden Mus. XX p. 77 (1898--Finsch explains that the specimen in the Leyden Museum is not the type of Latham--and therefore of Gmelin's name--and therefore renames it).

For full synonymy and explanations of name, etc., cf. Avifauna of Laysan, p. 239, 240 and 243, also plate LXXVI.

Latham's description--from which Gmelin's diagnosis was taken--distinctly says that the feathers were "darkest in the middle," and in the Index Ornith. "supra maculis obscuris." Moreover, the unpublished drawing of Ellis, well reproduced in Mr. Scott Wilson's book, shows beyond doubt the identity of the bird of the old authors with the specimen in the Leyden Museum.

The Leyden specimen is all we are acquainted with, and of the history of this bird we know nothing but Latham's statement that it came from the Sandwich Islands.

{139}

TRIBONYX ROBERTI ANDREWS.

_Tribonyx roberti Andrews_, Ibis 1897, p. 356, pl. IX, figs 4-7.

This bird is described from an imperfect pelvis, a perfect left tibio-tarsus and a femur. The pelvis differs from that of _T. mortieri_ in not having the deep depression in the ilia in front of the acetabulum and above the pectineal process. It also differs in having a rather wider pelvic escutcheon and wider renal fossal, and the supra-acetabular ridges of the ilia are smaller than in the Australian bird. The beautifully-preserved left tibia differs from that of _T. mortieri_ in having the intercondylar groove wider and shallower, the inner condyle less massive, thus making the difference between the inner and outer condyle more marked; _T. roberti_ also has the shaft immediately above the extensor bridge wider, the bridge itself less oblique, and the fibular crest is longer.

The measurements are:--

_Pelvis._

Length of Ilium 82 mm. approx. Least width of acetabular region of Pelvis 14 " Width at Antitrochanter 40 " Width at anterior angle of Pelvic Escutcheon 36 " Width at Posterior angle of Pelvic Escutcheon 40 " Length of Sacrum 68 "

_Tibia._

Length 143 mm. Width at distal extremity 12 " Width at middle of shaft 7 "

_Femur._

Length 83 mm. Width at distal extremity 17 " Width at middle of shaft 7 "

Habitat: Sirabé in C. Madagascar.

{141}

NOTORNIS OWEN.

Differs from _Porphyrio_ by the secondaries being nearly as long as the primaries, and the wing-coverts more or less elongated, sometimes nearly hiding the quills.

Type: _Notornis mantelli_.

NOTORNIS MANTELLI OWEN.

_Notornis mantelli_ Owen, Trans. Zool. Soc. III, p. 377, pl. LVI, figs. 7-11 (1848).