Front matter

Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected. They are listed at the end of the text, after the plates.

EXTINCT BIRDS.

An attempt to unite in one volume a short account of those Birds which have become extinct in historical times—that is, within the last six or seven hundred years. To which are added a few which still exist, but are on the verge of extinction.

BY

The Hon. WALTER ROTHSCHILD, Ph. D., F.Z.S.

With 45 Coloured Plates, embracing 63 subjects, and other illustrations.

LONDON. Hutchinson & Co., Paternoster Row, E.C. 1907

LONDON: A. CHRIS. FOWLER, PRINTER, TENTER STREET, MOORFIELDS, E.C.

PREFACE.

When I decided to read a paper before the Ornithological Congress of 1905 on Extinct and Vanishing Birds, I found it necessary to illustrate my paper by a number of drawings. These drawings roused special interest among those who listened to my lecture, and I was asked by many if I could not see my way to publish the lecture and drawings, in book form, as these plates were far too numerous for the proceedings of the Congress. After some hesitation I determined to do this, greatly owing to the persuasion of the late Dr. Paul Leverkühn. The preparation of a book required considerably more research than the lecture, and therefore my readers will find, in the following pages, a totally different account to that in the lecture, as well as corrections and numerous additions. The lecture itself has been published in the "Proceedings of the IVth International Ornithological Congress."

I wish to thank very heartily all those of my ornithological friends, who have kindly helped me with the loan of specimens or otherwise, and especially Dr. H. O. Forbes, Dr. Scharff, Professor Dr. K. Lampert, Dr. O. Finsch, Professor Dr. A. Koenig, Dr. Kerbert, Mr. Fleming, Dr. von Lorenz, and others.

INTRODUCTION.

The study of the forms of life no longer existing on the earth, from the scanty remains preserved to us, has provoked a very great interest almost from the commencement of historical times. The very small portion of this vast field I am treating of in the following pages has a special attraction, as it deals to a great extent with forms familiar in a living state to our immediate forefathers and even to some of ourselves. Although I have here arranged the species systematically, they fall into two distinct categories, namely those known externally as well as internally, and those of which we know bones and egg-shells only. Under the former category might be included those merely known from descriptions or figures in ancient books, as well as those of which specimens exist. In the present work several plates have been reconstructed from such descriptions in order to give some idea of their probable appearance. There is considerable difference of opinion as to the approximate date of the disappearance of many of the species known from bones dug from deposits which have been variously determined as pleistocene and post-pleistocene. It seems to me that this problem can never be entirely solved, but the significant fact remains, that while many bones of these species in one locality have been collected in the kitchen-middens of the former inhabitants, in other localities the same bones occur in what seem to be much older formations.

In view of this and kindred facts, I have mentioned many species which some ornithologists will probably consider outside the range of the present treatise, viz., birds which have become extinct in the last seven- or eight-hundred years. Taking my first category, viz., those species whose exterior is more or less known, our knowledge is very variable in scope; about some we have a very full and even redundant literature, such as the Great Auk, the Labrador Duck, and Notornis, while of others, such as most of the extinct Parrots from the West Indies, the "Giant" of Mauritius, the "Blue Bird" of Bourbon, and so forth, we have the very scantiest knowledge. Even in the times of Leguat and Labat there must have been many species, now extinct, of which no mention has ever been made, for these old writers only mentioned such species which impressed themselves on their memories either from their size, peculiar shape, beauty of plumage, or excellence and usefulness for food—in fact the culinary property of the various birds seems to have been their principal interest. One of the most interesting phenomena connected with recently extinct birds is the resemblance of the fauna of the Mascarene Islands and that of the Chatham Islands in the possession of a number of large flightless Rails, though the significance of this fact has been much exaggerated.

On the whole, this book is confined to species actually known to be extinct, but a few are included of which a small number is still known to exist, because firstly there seems no doubt that they will vanish soon, and secondly, as in the case of Notornis, it was necessary to clear up certain misconceptions and contradictory statements. In the case of a few species believed to be quite extinct, it is possible that some individuals may still exist in little known parts of their range, while on the other hand it is more than likely that several of the species referred to in my lecture (Proc. Orn. Congress pp. 191-207, 1907) as threatened with destruction, have already ceased to live. This may also be the case with some birds not alluded to at all.

In several instances I have treated of extinct flightless species under genera including existing species capable of flight. This may appear to be inconsistent, seeing that I maintain Notornis separate from Porphyrio, but, while not considering flightlessness in itself a generic character, the great development of the wing-coverts and the modification of the toes appear of sufficient generic value in this case. I know that several of the most eminent ornithologists of the day, among them Dr. Sharpe, differ from me, and are convinced that the loss of the power of flight is so profound a modification, that it is imperative that we should treat it as sufficient for generic distinction.

While agreeing that many genera are founded on much less striking modifications, I cannot concur in this opinion, for, unless the loss of the power of flight is also accompanied by other changes, in some cases it is difficult to find at first sight even specific differences other than the aborted wings.

The cause of recent extinction among birds is in most cases due directly or indirectly to man, but we also have instances of birds becoming extinct for no apparent reason whatever.

Man has destroyed, and is continually destroying species directly, either for food or for sport, but also in many other ways he contributes to their destruction. Some species have been exterminated by the introduction of animals of prey, such as rats, cats, mongoose, etc., and we know that also the acclimatisation of other birds, such as the mynah, etc., has proved to be harmful to the native birds. Again we find that the introduction of domestic creatures or others kept as pets has brought diseases which may prove fatal to the indigenous fauna. Another means by which man causes immense destruction, is by destroying the natural habitat of various species. By cutting down or burning the forests, prairies, or scrub, and by bringing the land under cultivation, man indirectly kills off a species through starvation, from extermination of certain insects or plants on which it depends for food. Many species, such as the Moas, were evidently greatly reduced in numbers by cataclysms of Nature, such as volcanic outbreaks, earthquakes, floods, bush fires, etc., and then died out from what appears only explicable by the natural exhaustion of their vitality. The chief cause of the extermination of the Moas was undoubtedly their slaughter by the Maoris for food, but in several inaccessible parts of the interior large numbers of Moa remains have been found which undoubtedly had died for no apparent reason.

This cause also seems to be the only explanation of the dying out of such birds as Aechmorhynchus, Chaetoptila, Camptolaimus and others.

The melancholy fact however remains that man and his satellites, cats, rats, dogs, and pigs are the worst and in fact the only important agents of destruction of the native avifaunas wherever they go.

I have not included in the body of this work the fossil species from the pleistocene of Europe, Asia, Australia and America, as I believe that these belonged to an avifauna of an epoch considerably anterior to those attributed to the pleistocene of New Zealand and the adjacent islands, as well as that of the Mascarenes and Madagascar. I, however, give here the list of the species described from the above mentioned regions which I have been able to find in our literature, to serve as a guide to those who may think I ought to have included them in the work itself.

Strix melitensis Lydekker Malta.

Vultur melitensis Lydekker Malta.

Pelecanus proavus De Vis Queensland.

Phalacrocorax sp. Lydekker New Zealand.

Aythya robusta De Vis Queensland.

Anas elapsa De Vis Queensland.

Anas benedeni Sharpe Belgium.

Alopochen pugil Winge Brazil.

Dendrocygna validipennis (De Vis) Queensland.

Branta hypsibata Cope Oregon.

Branta propinqua Schufeldt Oregon.

Anser scaldii Van Beneden Belgium.

Anser sp. Lydekker England.

Anser coudoni Schufeldt Oregon.

Cygnus sp. Lydekker Malta.

Cygnus falconeri Parker Malta.

Palaeopelargus nobilis De Vis Queensland.

Prociconia lydekkeri Ameghino Brazil.

Platibis subtenuis De Vis Queensland.

Grus proavus Marsh New Jersey.

Grus melitensis Lydekker Malta.

Grus turfa Portis Italy.

Grus primigenia Milne Edwards France.

Fulica prior De Vis Queensland.

Fulica pisana Portis Italy.

Porphyrio mackintoshi De Vis Queensland.

Gallinula strenuipes De Vis Queensland.

Gallinula peralata De Vis Queensland.

Microtribonyx effluxus De Vis Queensland.

Progura gallinacea De Vis Queensland.

Columba melitensis Lydekker Malta.

Lithophaps ulnaris De Vis Queensland.

Gallus sp. Lydekker New Zealand.

Gallus sp. Lydekker Central Germany.

Phasianus sp. Lydekker Germany.

Perdix sp. Issel Italy.

Tetrao sp. Issel Italy.

Metapteryx bifrons De Vis Queensland.

Dromaius queenslandiae (De Vis) Queensland.

Dromaius gracilipes (De Vis) Queensland.

Dromaius patricius (De Vis) East Australia.

Genyornis newtoni Sterling & Zeitz South Australia.

Casuarius lydekkeri nom. nov.

"The distal extremity of the tibio-tarsus is narrow, without a semilunar pit on the lateral surface of the ectocondyle, and with a very deep extensor groove" (Lydekker, Cat. Fossil B. Brit. Mus., p. 353).

Type, a caste of the distal portion of the right tibio-tarsus, in the British Museum. The original is preserved in the Museum at Sydney and was obtained from the pleistocene cavern-deposits in the Wellington Valley in New South Wales.

A bird usually stated to be extinct is Monarcha dimidiata, from Rara-Tonga, but in March, 1901, two specimens, male and female, were procured by the Earl of Ranfurly. Doubtless this is a species which will one day vanish entirely, but at present it hardly comes within the scope of this work.

The birds known to be more or less on the verge of extinction which I have not thought advisable to give in the main part of this book might, for convenience of reference and to avoid possible controversy as to my having omitted any species, be given here, but it must be understood that of these species I only know the fact that their numbers have been greatly reduced and mostly almost to vanishing point. I have already mentioned before that some of them may already have disappeared, but in many cases recent investigations are wanting, and all, therefore, that can be said of them is that they are threatened and may soon become extinct, if they still exist.

Myadestes sibilans St. Vincent.

Myadestes genibarbis Martinique.

Cinclocerthia gutturalis Martinique.

Rhamphocinclus brachyurus Martinique.

Ixocincla olivacea Mauritius.

Phedina borbonica Mascarene Islands.

Trochocercus borbonicus Mascarene Islands.

Oxynotus typicus Mauritius.

Foudia newtoni Bourbon.

Drymoeca rodericana Rodriguez.

Cyanorhamphus cooki Norfolk Island.

Cyanorhamphus erythrotis Antipodes Island.

Cyanorhamphus unicolor Antipodes Island.

Turnagra tanagra North Island, New Zealand.

Sceloglaux albifacies Middle Island, New Zealand.

Miro albifrons North Island, New Zealand.

Miro australis Middle Island, New Zealand.

Clitonyx albicilla North Island, New Zealand.

Pogonornis cincta North Island, New Zealand.

Hypotaenidia mülleri Auckland Island.

Mergus australis Auckland Island.

Nesonetta aucklandica Auckland Island.

Ocydromus? sylvestris Lord Howe's Island.

Puffinus newelli Hawaiian Islands.

Telespiza flaviceps Hawaii.

Nesochen sandvicensis Hawaii.

Pareudiastes pacificus Samoa.

Nesomimus trifasciatus Charles? and Gardener Island, Galápagos Islands.

Phalacrocorax harrisi Galápagos Islands.

Meleagris americana United States.

Conurus carolinensis Southern United States.

Pseudgryphus californianus California.

Amazona guildingi St. Vincent.

Campephilus principalis Southern United States.

Pyrrhula pyrrhula murina Azores.

Stringops habroptilus New Zealand.

Anthornis melanocephala Chatham Islands.

Gallinago pusilla Chatham Islands.

Thinornis novaezealandiae Chatham Islands.

Amazona augusta Dominica.

Amazona bouqueti St. Lucia.

Amazona versicolor Dominica.

Hemignathus lanaiensis Lanai, Sandwich Islands.

Many of my readers will, I fear, find fault with me for having bestowed names on a number of forms, known only from fragments of bones, single bones, or two or three bones. Especially will they, I fear, blame me for doing this when these forms have been described by other authors who have refrained from giving names. My reasons for doing so are very simple: in such cases as Dr. Parker's species which are fully described, but quoted under the formula Pachyornis species A or Anomalopteryx species B, the danger lies in different authors using the same formula for quite other species. In the case of others, where an author fears to name a form, but gives the distinctive characters and quotes only Casuarius species or Emeus sp., unless the author and page are quoted, confusion must arise, and so in both cases I have thought it easier for reference and also more concise to name all these forms which have been described or differentiated without a binomial or trinomial appellation. I have, however, refrained from doing so in the foregoing list of Pleistocene species in the following eight cases as I was not able to decide anything about them with the material or literature at my disposal, viz.:—

Phalacrocorax sp. Lydekker New Zealand.

Anser sp. Lydekker England.

Cygnus sp. Lydekker Malta.

Gallus sp. Lydekker New Zealand.

Gallus sp. Lydekker Central Germany.

Phasianus sp. Lydekker Germany.

Perdix sp. Issel Italy.

Tetrao sp. Issel Italy.

LITERATURE REFERRING TO EXTINCT BIRDS.

No attempt has been made to quote all books in which extinct birds have been mentioned; not only would that mean a tedious, long work, and a book in itself, but, the repetitions being so numerous, it would have been of very little use. On the other hand, I have tried to quote the most important literature referring to Extinct Birds, and I have specially been anxious to cite and verify the principal ancient literature. Well known general works on birds in which extinct species have, of course, also been mentioned, are, as a rule, not quoted; such as: The 27 volumes of the Catalogue of Birds; Brisson's Ornithology; Daubenton's, Buffon's and Montbeillard's works; Latham's Ornithological Writings; Linnaeus' Systema Naturae in all its editions; Vieillot's writings; popular natural histories and school books; Brehm's Thierleben in its various editions; Finsch's Papageien; Gray's and Sharpe's Hand-lists; Dubois' Synopsis Avium, lists of specimens in Museums, and many others, in which extinct birds are as a matter of course mentioned.

Three most complete detailed bibliographies must be named: The "Bibliography of the Didinae," forming Appendix B. of Strickland's "Dodo and its Kindred" (1848), the Bibliography of Alca impennis by Wilhelm Blasius in the new Edition of Naumann, vol. XII, pp. 169-176 (1903), and the Bibliography referring to the Moas by Hamilton, in the Trans. New Zealand Institute XXVI and XXVII (1894, 1895).

Most of the books and pamphlets quoted hereafter are in my library at the Zoological Museum at Tring, in the ornithological part of which Dr. Hartert and I have been specially interested for many years. Those books that are not in my library are marked with an asterisk, but several of these I have been able to consult in other libraries.

The chronological order appeared to be best suited to the particular subject treated of.

1580 or 90. Collaert, Adrian. Avium vivae icones, in aes incisae & editae ab Adriano Collardo.

(On one of the plates is figured the "Avis Indica." This figure seems to have been the original of the representations in Dubois' and Leguat's works.)

1601. Jacob Cornelisz Neck. Het tweede Boek, Journael oft Dagh-register, inhoudende een warachtig verhael, etc., etc. Middelburch, Anno 1601.

(On picture No. 2, page 7, the Dodo is figured and described as follows: "Desen Voghel de is soo groot als een Swaen, gaven hem de naem Walchvoghel, want doen wy de leckere Duyfkens ende ande cleyn ghevoghelte ghenoech vinghen, doen taelden wy niet meer naer desen Voghel." This appears to be the first mention of the Dodo in literature.)

1605. Clusius. Caroli Clusii Atrebatis ... Exoticorum libri decem: Quibus Animalium, Plantarum, Aromatum historiae describuntur. Ex Officina Plantiniana Raphelengii, 1605.

(On p. 100 van Neck's Dodo is reproduced, on p. 103 the Great Auk, sub nomine "Mergus Americanus.")

1606. De Bry. Achter Theil der Orientalischen Indien, begreiffend erstlich ein Histor. Beschr. d. Schiffahrt, so der Adm. Jacob von Neck ausz Hollandt, etc., etc. Frankf. 1606.

(Figure and mention of the Dodo.)

1619. Jacob Cornelisz Neck. Historiale Beschryvinghe, Inhoudende een waerachtich verhael vande veyse ghedaen met acht Schepen van Amsterdam, etc., etc. Amsterdam, 1619.

(Evidently another edition of Neck's voyage of 1601. On page 5 and on Picture No. 2 (page 7), which is the same as in the other editions of Neck's voyage, the Dodo is described. There is also a French edition of 1601.)

1625. Castleton. Purchas his Pilgrimes. In five books.

(On p. 331, in chapter XV., first mention of the Réunion Dodo.)

1626. Sir Thomas Herbert. A relation of some years' Travaile.

(First mention of Aphanapteryx bonasia.)

1635. Nieremberg. Joannis Evsebii Nierembergii ... Historia Naturae, maxime peregrinae, libris XVI distincta. In quibus rarissima Naturae arcana, etc., etc., etc. Antverpiae MDCXXXV.

(Clusius' account and figure of the Dodo reproduced on pp. 231, 232. On p. 237 the Great Auk ("Goifugel") mentioned).

*1638 and 1651. Cauche. Rélations véritables et curieuses de l'isle de Madagascar. (Two editions.)

(See Aphanapteryx bonasia.)

1640. Père Bouton. Relation de l'établ. des Français dep. 1635, en l'ile Martinique, l'vne des antilles de l'Amérique.

(Describes, among other birds, the Aras and Parrots of the island of Martinique.)

1646. Bontekoe. Journ. of te gedenckw. beschr. van de Ost. Ind. Reyse. Haarlem 1646.

(On p. 6 mention of the Réunion Dodo.)

1655. Worm. Museum Wormianum.

(On pp. 300, 301, lib. III, description and figure of a Great Auk from the Faroe Islands.)

1658. Histoire Naturelle et Morale des Iles Antilles de l'Amérique. Enrichie de pleusieurs belles figures des Raretez les plus considerables qui y sont d'écrites. Avec un vocabulaire caraïbe. Rotterdam 1658.

(The title-page has no author's name, but according to Père du Tertre the author is "Le Sieur de Rochefort, Ministre de Rotterdam." Contains important notes on former bird-life on the Antilles.)

1665. The same. Second Edition. Rotterdam 1665.

1658. Bontius. Gulielmi Pisonis Medici Amstelaedamensis de Indiae Utriusque re naturali et medica libri quatuordecim. Third Part: Jacobi Bontii, medici civitatis Bataviae Novae in Java Ordinarii, Historiae Natur. et Medici Indiae Orientalis libri sex.

(On p. 70 an excellent figure of the Dodo. Caput XVII. Appendix: De Dronte, aliis Dod-aers.)

1667. Du Tertre. Histoire générale des Antilles habitées par les François. Tome II, contenant l'Histoire Naturelle. Paris 1667.

(On p. 246. Traite V. Des animaux de l'air. § I, Les Arras. § II, Des Perroquets. § III, Des Perriques.)

1668. Historische Beschreibung der Antillen Inseln in America gelegen. In sich begreiffend deroselben Gelegenheit, darinnen befindl. natürl. Sachen, sampt deren Einwohner Sitten und Gebraüchen. Von dem Herrn de Rochefort, zum zweiten mahl in Französischer sprach an den Tag gegeben, nunmehr aber in die Teutsche übersetzet. Frankfurt 1668.

(Translation of the second edition of Rochefort's book.)

*1668. Carré, Voyage des Indes Orientales.

(Page 12 the "Solitaire." Cf. Didus solitarius.)

1668. J. Marshall. Memorandums concerning India.

(In the article on Mauritius occurs a mention of Geese.)

1674. Père Dubois. Les Voyages faits par le Sieur D.B. aux Isles Dauphine ou Madagascar, et Bourbon, ou Mascarenne, és années 1669-70-71-72.

(Of this extremely rare work I possess a beautiful copy, together with the map of Sanson belonging to it.)

(On p. 168 we find "Description de quelques Oyseaux de l'Isle de Bourbon," with figures of the "Géant" and "Solitaire.")

1696. Thevenot, M. Melchisedec. Rélations de divers voyages curieux qui nont point este' publié'es. Nouvelle Edition. Vol. I, II, 1696.

(A very interesting collection of ancient voyages, translated into French. In Vol. II is a translation of Bontekoe's travels to the "East Indies," with figures of the Dodo and other interesting notes.)

1707. Leguat, François. Voyages et Avantures de François Leguat, et de ses Compagnons, en deux Isles desertes des Indes Orientales. Londres 1707.

1708. Leguat, Francis. A New Voyage to the East Indies by Francis Leguat and his companions. Containing their adventures in two desert islands. London 1708.

(Valuable notes on the birds of Rodriguez and Mauritius.)

1707. Sloane, Hans. A Voyage to the islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christofers and Jamaica, with the Natural History of the Herbs and Trees, four-footed Beasts, Fishes, Insects, Birds, Reptiles, etc. Vol. I, 1707; vol. II, 1725.

(Gives most valuable notes on the birds, including the Goatsucker, Aestrelata and Parrots.)

1722. Labat, Jean Baptiste. Nouveau Voyage aux Iles de l'Amérique contenant l'histoire naturelle de ces pays. Paris 1722. 6 vols.

(In Vol. II, chapter VIII, the different species of Parrots are described, and it is stated that each island had three kinds, viz., an "Aras," a "Perroquet" and a "Perrique," evidently meaning a Macaw, an Amazona and a Conurus.)

1742. Nouvelle Edition. 8 vols.

1752. Moehring. Avium Genera.

(In this ominous work, which, through an article by Poche in Zool. Anz. 1904, has recently caused so much quite unnecessary disturbance among nomenclatorists—cf. Hartert, Zool. Anz. 1904, p. 154, and Proc. IV. Int. Orn. Congress, pp. 276-283. The Dodo is mentioned under the name "Raphus.")

1763. L'Abbé de la Caille. Journal Historique du Voyage fait au Cap de Bonne-espérance.

(Some birds from Mauritius mentioned, but no descriptions.)

1773. Voyage a l'isle de France, à l'isle de Bourbon, au Cap de Bonne Espérance, etc. Avec des observations nouvelles sur la nature et sur les hommes. Par un officier du roi. Neuchatel 1773.

1775. A voyage to the island of Mauritius, etc. By a French Officer. (Translation of the above).

(Lettre IX, page 67, treats of the "Animals natural to the isle of France.")

1782. Sonnerat. Voyage aux iles orientales et à la Chine. Two volumes, 1782.

(In Volume II, on plate 101, opposite page 176, the extinct Alectroenas nitidissima is figured, under the name of "Pigeon hollandais.")

*1783 (?) Callam. Voyage Botany Bay.

(According to Gray Notornis alba is mentioned under the name of "White Gallinule.")

1786. Sparrmann. Museum Carlsonianum I.

(On pl. 23 Pomarea nigra Sparrm.)

1789. G. Dixon. Voyage round the World.

(On p. 357 is note and figure of the extinct Moho apicalis, under the name of the "Yellow-tufted Bee-eater.")

1789. Browne, Patrick. The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica.

1789. The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay, etc. London 1789.

(Among other interesting birds Notornis stanleyi is figured on the plate opposite p. 273.)

1790. J. White. Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales with sixty-five Plates of Nondescript Animals, Birds, Lizards, Serpents, etc. London MDCCXC.

(I have a copy with black and white, and another with coloured plates. Notornis alba.)

1804. Hermann. Observationes Zoolog.

(On page 125 the extinct Bourbon Palaeornis is described as Psittacus semirostris.)

1807. M. F. Péron. Voyage de découvertes aux terres australes, exécuté par ordre de Sa Majesté l'Empereur et Roi, etc., etc. 2 vols. 1807 and 1816 and Atlas.

(On p. 467 is described the Little Emu from Kangaroo Island, which I have named Dromaius peronii, in honour of its discoverer, François Péron. A memoir of this extraordinary and admirable man's short and brilliant life will be found in Vol. VI of the "Naturalist's Library," Edinburgh, 1843.)

1810. André Pierre Ledru. Voyage aux iles de Ténériffe, la Trinité, Saint-Thomas, Sainte-Croix et Porto-Ricco, exécuté par ordre du Gouvern. français, etc., etc. Two volumes, 1810.

(In Vol. II, page 39, are mentioned various birds as occurring on the Danish West-Indian Islands, which are not found there at present. "Un todier, nommé vulgairement perroquet de terre" and seven species of Humming-Birds!)

*1826. Bloxam. Voyage of the Blonde.

(See Phaeornis oahensis, Loxops coccinea rufa. Also interesting notes on other Sandwich-Islands Birds.)

1827. Pallas. Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. II p. 305: Phalacrocorax perspicillatus, the now extinct Cormorant from Bering Island.

1830. Quoy et Gaimard. Voy. Astrolabe, Zool. I p. 242 pl. 24.

(Coturnix novaezealandiae described.)

1830. Kittlitz. Mémoires Acad. Sc. Pétersburg I.

(Kittlitz describes Turdus terrestris and Fringilla papa.)

*1838. Polack. New Zealand.

(First mention of Moas.)

*1838. Don de Navarette. Rel. Quat. voy. Christ.

1838. Lichtenstein. Abhandl. K. Akademie d. Wissenschaften p. 448, plate V.

(Hemignathus ellisianus—sub nomine obscurus—and Hemignathus lucidus described.)

1843. Dieffenbach's Travels in New Zealand, 1843. Appendix, Birds, by J. E. Gray. On page 197 Rallus dieffenbachii described.

1843. Owen. P.Z.S. 1843, p. 1., letter read from Rev. W. C. Cotton, mentioning remains of gigantic birds in New Zealand, p. 8 the name Dinornis novaezealandiae given to the first Moa-bones exhibited.

1846. In the "Voyage of Erebus and Terror," Birds, Gray describes and figures Nesolimnas dieffenbachii.

1847. Gosse. Birds of Jamaica.

(Cf. Ara erythrocephala, Siphonorhis americanus and other Jamaican birds.)

1848. Edm. de Sélys-Longchamps. Résumé concern, les Oiseaux brévipennes mentionnés dans l'ouvrage de M. Strickland sur le Dodo.

In Rev. Zool. 1848, pp. 292-295.

1848. Strickland and Melville. The Dodo and its kindred; or the history, affinities, and Osteology of the Dodo, Solitaire, and other extinct birds of the islands Mauritius, Rodriguez and Bourbon. London 1848.

(141 pages and 15 plates.)

*1848. Peale. U.S. Expl. Exp. Birds.

(On p. 147, pl. XL, is described and figured the extinct Chaetoptila augustipluma, under the name of Entomiza augustipluma. This work is not available, as only 3 or 4 copies exist of it, but see:

Cassin. U.S. Expl. Exp. Mamm. and Orn. p. p. 148 pl. XI (1858).

1851. Is. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire. Notice sur des ossements et des oeufs trouvés a Madagascar dans les alluvions modernes, et provenant d'un oiseau gigantesque.

In Annales des Scienc. Naturelles, 13 série. Zoologie, tome 40.

(This volume is dated "1850," but the above article is said to have been read before the Academy on January 27, 1851, therefore the date of publication must be rather 1851 than 1850.)

1854. H. Schlegel. Ook een woordje over den Dodo en zijne verwanten.

In: Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Koninglijke Akademie der Wetenschappen, Afdeel. Naturkunde, Deel II, p. 254.

1857. Japetus Steenstrup. Bidrag til Geirfuglens Naturhistorie, etc.

In: Naturh. Forening. Vidensk. Meddel. for 1855, Nos. 3-7.

(The first history and bibliography of the Great Auk.)

1858. H. Schlegel. Over eenige uitgestorvene reusachtige Vogels van de Mascarenhas-eilanden. (Een tegenhanger tot zijne geschiedenis der Dodo's.)

In: Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Koninglijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeel. Naturkunde, Deel VII, pp. 116-128.

(Leguatia gigantea, Porphyrio (Notornis?) caerulescens.)

1860. A. v. Pelzeln. Zur Ornithologie der Insel Norfolk.

In: Sitzungsberichte der Mathemat. Naturwiss. Cl. Akademie Wien Bd. XLI, No. 15, pp. 319-332. (Mit 1 Tafel.)

(Lengthy account of Nestor norfolcensis, from Bauer's Manuscript, Notornis alba, etc.)

1861. Alfred Newton. Abstract of Mr. Wolley's Researches in Iceland respecting the Gare-fowl.

In Ibis, 1861, pp. 374-399.

1862. W. J. Broderip. Notice of an Original Painting, including a figure of the Dodo.

In Trans. Zool. Soc. London IV, p. 197.

1862. William Preyer. Ueber Plautus impennis.

In Journ. f. Orn. 1862, pp. 110-124, 337-356.

1865. Alfred Newton. The Gare-fowl and its Historians.

In Natural Hist. Review XII (1865), pp. 467-488; id. in Encylcl. Britannica Ed. IX, Vol. III; id. Dict. Birds, p. 220-221.

1866. Owen. Psittacus mauritianus named, in Ibis p. 168; also mentioned in Trans. Zool. Soc. VI, p. 53, 1866.

(See Lophopsittacus.)

1866-1873. Alph. Milne-Edwards. Recherches sur la Faune Ornithologique Eteinte des iles Mascareignes et de Madagascar. Paris 1866-1873.

(With 37 plates. This volume consists of reprints of the author's articles on the subject in French periodicals, though not a word of this is mentioned. To the plates originally issued with the articles, several new ones are added.)

1867. Alfred Newton. On a Picture supposed to represent the Didine Bird of the Island of Bourbon (Réunion).

In Trans. Zool. Soc. London VI, pp. 373-376. Plate 62.

1867. George Dawson Rowley. On the Egg of Aepyornis, the Colossal Bird of Madagascar.

In Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1867, pp. 892-895.

1868. Frauenfeld, George Ritter von. Neu aufgefundene Abbildung des Dronte und eines zweiten kurzflügligen Vogels, wahrscheinlich des poule rouge au bec de bécasse der Maskarenen, in der Privatbibliothek S.M. des verstorbenen Kaisers Franz. Wien 1868. Mit 4 Tafeln.

1868. Schlegel & Pollen. Mammifères et Oiseaux, in: Pollen et von Dam, Recherches sur la faune de Madagascar et de ses dépendances. Leyde 1868.

1868. Owen, on Moas in Trans. Zool. Soc. London, VI.

(Dinornis maximus established.)

*1868. H. C. Millies. Over eene nieuw ontdekte afbeelding van den Dodo.

In: Verhandelingen der Koningl. Akad. d. Wetenschappen, Deel XI, Amsterdam 1868.

1869. Owen. On the osteology of the Dodo.

In: Trans. Zool. Soc. London VI, 1869, p. 70.

1869. Elliot. New and heretofore unfig. sp. N. American Birds.

(In Vol. II, part 14, No. 3, the now extinct Carbo perspicillatus from Bering Island figured.)

1872. F. W. Hutton. On the Microscopical structure of the Egg-shell of the Moa.

In Trans. & Proceed. New Zealand Inst. IV, pp. 166-167, with illustrations.

1872. F. W. Hutton. Notes on some Birds from the Chatham Islands, collected by H. H. Travers, Esq.

In Ibis 1872, pp. 243-250.

(Miro traversi and Sphenoeacus rufescens (Bowdleria rufescens of this book) only found on Mangare. First description of "Rallus modestus" (Cabalus modestus), "Rallus dieffenbachi" already extinct.)

1872. J. Hector. On Recent Moa Remains in New Zealand.

In Trans. and Proc. N. Zealand Inst. IV, p. 110.

1872. Julius Haast. Notes on Harpagornis Moorei.

In Trans. and Proc. N. Zealand Inst. IV, p. 192.

1873. A. v. Pelzeln. On the Birds in the Imperial Collection at Vienna obtained from the Leverian Museum.

In Ibis 1873, pp. 14-54, 103-124.

(Most important notes on some of Latham's types. Cf. Drepanis pacifica, Platycercus ulietanus, Notornis alba.)

1873. Christmann und Oberländer. Ozeanien.

(On pages 138-144 a popular account and wood cuts—from Brehm's Thierleben—of Moas and other Gigantic Birds.)

1873. Buller. The Birds of New Zealand.

1874. A. Milne-Edwards. Recherches sur la faune ancienne des iles Mascareignes.

In Ann. Sciences naturelles sér. V, Tome XIX, article 3 (Erythromachus, Strix murivora, Columba rodericana, etc.)

1875. Rowley. Porphyrio Stanleyi.

In Ornith. Miscell. I, pp. 37-48, plate.

1875. Hutton. Description of the Moa Swamp at Hamilton.

In Trans. & Proc. N. Zealand Inst. VII, p. 123, pl. V.

1875. Hutton & Coughtrey. Description of some Moa Remains from the Knobby Ranges.

In Trans. & Proc. N. Zealand Inst. VII, p. 266, pl. XIX.

1875. Alfred Newton. P.Z.S. 1875, p. 350: the name Lophopsittacus established.

1875. Hutton. On the Dimensions of Dinornis bones.

In Trans. & Proc. N. Zealand Inst. VII, p. 274.

1875. Julius von Haast. Researches and Excavations on, in and near the Moa-bone Point Cave, Sumner Road, in the year 1872.

In Trans. and Proceed. New Zealand Institute VII, pp. 54-85, pls. I, II.

*1875. Van Beneden. Journ. Zool. IV, p. 267.

(Description of Anas finschi.)

1876. A. & E. Newton. On the Psittaci of the Mascarene Islands.

In Ibis 1876, pp. 281-288, plate VI.

1876. Tommaso Salvadori. Nota intorno al Fregilupus varius.

In: Atti della Reale Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, Vol. XI, pp. 482-488.

1877. G. D. Rowley. On the Extinct Birds of the Mascarene Islands.

In Orn. Miscell. II, pp. 124-133, plates LII, LIII.

1878. G. D. Rowley. Remarks on the Extinct Gigantic Birds of Madagascar and New Zealand.

In Ornith. Miscell. III, pp. 237-247, pls. CXII-CXV.

1879. Dole. List of Birds of the Hawaiian Islands. Corrected from the Hawaiian Almanack. Reprint: Ibis 1881, p. 241.

(Pennula millsi, Ciridops anna.)

1879. Owen, Richard. Memoirs on the Extinct Wingless Birds of New Zealand; with an Appendix on those of England, Australia, Newfoundland, Mauritius and Rodriguez.

(Memoirs on the Dinornithidae, their bones, eggs, integument and plumage, Notornis, Aptornis, Cnemiornis, Alca impennis, Didus and Pezophaps. With many wood-cuts and plates.)

(See also Owen's articles in Trans. Zool. Soc. London III, IV, VI, X, XI.)

1879. Günther and E. Newton, on Aphanapteryx leguati in Philosophical Transactions. Vol. 168, pp. 431-432, pl. XLIII.

1879. W. A. Forbes. On the systemat. position and scientific name of "Le Perroquet mascarin" of Brisson.

In Ibis 1879, p. 303.

1884. Wilhelm Blasius. Zur Geschichte von Alca impennis.

In Journ. f. Orn. 1884, pp. 58-176.

(The most accurate and complete list—till 1884—of specimens of Alca impennis.)

1885. A. B. Meyer. Notornis hochstetteri.

In: Zeitschr. ges. Orn. II, p. 45, pl. I.

1885. Symington Grieve. The Great Auk or Garefowl. Its History, Archaeology, and Remains. London 1885.

1897. Id.: Supplementary note on the Great Auk; in Trans. Edinburgh Field Nat. Soc. 1897, pp. 238-273.

1886. December. Julius von Haast. On Megalapteryx hectori, a new Gigantic Species of Apterygian Bird.

In Trans. Zool. Soc. London XII, p. 161, pl. XXX.

1887. Henry Seebohm. The Geographical Distribution of the family Charidriidae.

(Plates of Prosobonia leucoptera and Aechmorhynchus cancellata.)

1888. Buller. A History of the Birds of New Zealand.

In two volumes. Second Edition. (See 1873.)

1889. Sir Edward Newton. Presidential address.

In Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Natural. Society IV, pp. 540-547.

1889. A. de Quatrefages. Nouvelle Preuve de l'Extinction récente des Moas.

In: Le Naturaliste 1889, p. 117.

1889. F. C. Noll. Die Veränderung in der Vogelwelt im Laufe der Zeit.

In: Bericht über die Senckenberg. Naturf. Gesellsch. in Frankf.-a.-M. 1887-1888, pp. 77-142.

1890. Stejneger and Lucas. Contributions to the History of Pallas' Cormorant. With plates II-IV.

In Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. XII, pp. 83-94.

1890-99. Scott B. Wilson & Evans. Aves Hawaiienses: The Birds of the Sandwich Islands. With numerous plates.

1891. Richard Lydekker. Catalogue of the Fossil Birds in the British Museum. London 1891.

(Pages I-XXVII, 1-368. With 75 figures in the text.)

1891. Frederic A. Lucas. Animals recently extinct or threatened with extermination, as represented in the collection of the U.S. National Museum.

In Report of the Smithson Inst. (U.S. Nat. Mus.) 1889 (1891!), pp. 609-649, pls. XCV-CV.

(An account of some of the larger animals which have become extinct within historic times, or are threatened with extinction, with reasons suggested for their disappearance.)

1891. Hartert. Katalog der Vogelsammlung im Museum der Senchenberg. Naturf. Ges. Frankfurt-a-M.

(Alca impennis, Turdus terrestris, Chaunoproctus ferreorostris, Hemiphaga spadicea mentioned.)

1891. Will. Dutcher. The Labrador Duck. A revised list of the extant specimens in North America, with some historical notes.

In Auk 1891, pp. 301-316, pl. 2.

1894. Will. Dutcher. The Labrador Duck. With additional data respecting extant specimens.

In Auk 1894, pp. 4-12.

1892. Forbes, H. O. Preliminary Notice of Additions to the Extinct Avifauna of New Zealand (Abstract).

In Trans. and Proceed. New Zealand Inst. Vol. XXIV, pp. 185-189.

(The editors say that the paper is published in abstract, as it had been impossible to prepare the drawings for its illustrations in time.—It is a most pitiful and unscientific proceeding to publish such preliminary abstracts containing insufficiently founded names and complete "nomina nuda" without publishing a fuller account; such, as far as I know, has never appeared.)

1892. H. O. Forbes. Aphanapteryx and other remains in the Chatham Islands.

In Nature, Vol. XLVI, p. 252.

(Short notes on avian remains which, unfortunately, were never properly studied afterwards.)

1892. Hutton. The Moas of New Zealand.

In Trans. and Proceed. New Zealand Institute Vol. XXIV, pp. 93-172, pls. XV-XVII.

1892. Hamilton. Notes on Moa Gizzard-stones, t.c. p. 172.

1892. Hamilton. On the genus Aptornis, t.c. pp. 175-184.

1892. Hartlaub. Vier seltene Rallen.

In: Abhandl. d. Naturwiss. Vereins zu Bremen XII.

1893. H. O. Forbes. A List of the Birds inhabiting the Chatham Islands.

In Ibis 1893, pp. 521-546.

(Notes on the living and extinct forms. The genus Palaeolimnas established. Egg of Cabalus modestus figured, etc.)

1893. W. W. Smith. Notes on certain species of New Zealand Birds.

In Ibis 1893, pp. 509-520.

(Methods of colonization and their disastrous results to the birds described.)

1893. Milne-Edwards & Oustalet. Notice sur quelques espèces d'oiseaux actuellement éteintes qui se trouvent représentées dans les collections du muséum d'histoire naturelle. In: Centenaire de la fondation du muséum d'histoire naturelle. Volume commémoratif publié par les professeurs du Muséum. Pp. 189-252, pls. I-V.

(Only 6 species: Mascarinus mascarinus, Alectroenas nitidissima, Alca impennis, Fregilupus varius, Camptolaemus labradorius, Dromaius "ater," but these beautifully figured and masterly described and discussed.)

1893. Sir E. Newton and Gadow. On additional Bones of the Dodo and other Extinct Birds of Mauritius obtained by Mr. Théodore Sauzier.

In Trans. Zool. Soc. London XIII, pp. 281-302. Pls. XXXIII-XXXVII.

(Strix sauzieri, Astur alphonsi, Butorides mauritianus, Plotus nanus, Sarcidiornis mauritianus, Anas theodori, etc.)

1893. A. de Quatrefages. The Moas and Moa-hunters.

In Trans. and Proceed. New Zealand Inst. XXV, pp. 17-49.

(Translation of the French article which appeared in the Nos. for June and July of the "Journal des Savants" by Laura Buller.)

1893. Parker. On the classification and mutual relations of the Dinornithidae. By T. J. Parker.

In Trans. and Proc. New Zealand Inst. XXV, pp. 1-6, pls. I-III.

1893. F. W. Hutton. New Species of Moas.

In Trans. and Proc. New Zealand Inst. Vol. XXV, pp. 6-13.

(Dinornis strenuus, Anomalopteryx fortis, Euryapteryx compacta, Pachyornis inhabilis, P. valgus.)

1893. F. W. Hutton. On Anomalopteryx antiqua. T.c. p. 14, pl. IV.

*1893. R. Burckhardt, in Paläontolog. Abhandl. VI, Heft 2, pp. 127-145, Taf. 1-4.

(Aepyornis.)

1893. H. O. Forbes. The Moas of New Zealand.

In Natural Science II, pp. 374-380.

1893. A. Hamilton. On the Fissures and Caves at the Castle Rocks, Southland; with a description of the remains of the Existing and Extinct Birds found in them.

(In Trans. and Proceed. New Zealand Inst. XXV, pp. 88-106; with figures.)

1893. A. Newton. "Extermination." In A Dictionary of Birds.

(See also in Encyclopaedia Britannica.)

1893-1900. Walter Rothschild. The Avifauna of Laysan and the Neighbouring Islands: with a complete history to date of the Birds of the Hawaiian Possessions. London 1893-1900. With numerous plates.

(Account and coloured plates of the extinct birds of Oahu and Hawaii.)

1894. Milne-Edwards et Grandidier. Observations sur les Aepyornis de Madagascar.

In: Comptes Rendus hebd. des Séances de l'Acad. d. Sciences, Paris, Vol. CXVIII, Part I, pp. 122-127.

1894. J. Parker. Notes on Three Moa-Skulls.

In Trans. and Proc. N. Zealand Inst. XXVI, p. 223.

1894. Hamilton. On Avian Remains in Southland.

In Trans. and Proc. N. Zealand Inst. XXVI, p. 226.

1894. Hamilton. Materials for a Bibliography of the Dinornithidae.

In Trans. and Proc. N. Zealand Inst. XXVI, pp. 229-257.

(A careful list to which I refer my readers.)

1895. C. W. Andrews. On some remains of Aepyornis in the Hon. Walter Rothschild's Museum at Tring.

In: Novitates Zoologicae II, pp. 23-25.

1895. Hamilton. Further contributions towards a Bibliography of the Moas.

In Trans. and Proc. N. Zealand Inst. XXVII, p. 228-232.

1895. Jeffery Parker. On the Cranial Osteology, Classification, and Phylogeny of the Dinornithidae.

In Trans. Zool. Soc. London Vol. XIII, pp. 373-431, pls. LVI-LXII.

1895. Hamilton. On the Feathers of a small Moa.

In Trans. and Proc. N. Zealand Inst. XXVII, pp. 232-238.

*1895. C. W. Andrews. On Aepyornis bones, etc., in Geological Magazine 1895.

1896. Hutton. On a deposit of Moa-bones at Kapua.

In Trans. and Proc. N. Zealand Inst. XXVIII, p. 627. Id. On the Moa-bones from Enfield, t.c. p. 645.

1896. C. W. Andrews. On the Extinct Birds of the Chatham Islands.

In Novit Zoolog. III, p. 73-84 and 260-271.

(Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi, Palaeolimnas chathamensis, Nesolimnas dieffenbachii.)

1896. G. Hartlaub. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der ausgestorbenen Vögel der Neuzeit, sowie derjenigen, deren Fortbestehen bedroht erscheint.

In: Abhandl. d. Naturwiss. Vereins gn. Bremen XIV Band, 1 Heft.

(Also: Second edition of the same, printed as manuscript, with a few alterations and additions.)

(The most useful, comprehensive pamphlet on recently extinct birds.)

1897. Andrews. On some fossil remains of Carinate Birds from Central Madagascar.

In Ibis 1897, pp. 343-359, pls. VIII and IX.

1897. H. O. Forbes. On an apparently new, and supposed to be now extinct, species of Bird from the Mascarene Islands, provisionally referred to the genus Necropsar. With plate.

In Bull. Liverpool Museums, I, p. 34, pl. Sturn. I (Necropsar leguati).

1897. Forbes and Robinson. Note on Two Species of Pigeon, t.c. p. 35.

(Hemiphaga spadicea.)

(On pl. I of the same vol. is figured Nestor norfolcensis. See p. 5.)

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.

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.

LIST OF PLATES.

01. Fregilupus varius. From the plate in the "Volume Centenaire," Mus. Hist. Naturelle, Paris.

02. 1. Foudia bruante. From the figure in Daubenton's work.

02. 2. Necropsar rodericanus. Made up from description.

02. 3. Necropsar leguati. From the type specimen in Liverpool.

03. 1. Geospiza magnirostris. From the type specimen in London.

03. 2. Geospiza strenua. Head. From specimen at Tring.

03. 3. Nesoenas mayeri. From specimen in the British Museum.

03. 4. Chaunoproctus ferreorostris ♂ ♀. From the pair in the British Museum.

04. 1. Hemignathus ellisianus. After a drawing from the type in the Berlin Museum.

04. 2. Heterorhynchus lucidus. From a specimen in the Paris Museum.

04. 3. Psittirostra psittacea deppei. From the type in the Tring Museum.

04. 4. Ciridops anna. From a specimen in the Tring Museum.

4a. 1. Moho apicalis. From specimen in the Tring Museum.

4a. 2. Chaetoptila angustipluma. From specimen in the Tring Museum.

05. 1. Miro traversi. From skin in the Tring Museum.

05. 2. Traversia lyalli ♂ and ♀. From the type specimens in the Tring Museum.

05. 3. Bowdleria rufescens. From a skin in the Tring Museum.

5a. Siphonorhis americanus. From skin in the British Museum.

06. 1. Nestor norfolcensis. From the plate in the Bulletin of the Liverpool Museum.

06. 2. Head of Nestor productus. From a specimen in the Tring Museum.

07. Lophopsittacus mauritianus. From ancient drawing and description.

08. Necropsittacus borbonicus. From a description.

09. Mascarinus mascarinus. From the drawing in the Volume commémoratif, Centenaire Mus. Paris.

10. Ara tricolor. From specimen in the Liverpool Museum.

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.

25b. 4, 5, 7, 8. Didus solitarius. Reproduction of ancient figures, see page 177.

26. 1. Hypotaenidia pacifica. From Forster's unpublished drawing in the British Museum.

26. 2. Pennula sandwichensis. From the unique specimen in the Leyden Museum.

26. 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.

28. 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."

35. 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 109.5 "

Tail 98.5 "

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.

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.

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 ⅞, at gape 13⁄16, height ⅞; wings from the carpus to the third quill 4½; tail 3, tarsus ⅞ 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. 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.

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.

GEOSPIZA DENTIROSTRIS GOULD.

Geospiza dentirostris Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1837, p. 6; Rothschild & Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1899 p. 163, 1902 p. 396.

This curious form differs from G. fortis fortis (Charles Island!) in its bill, which is bowed in towards the end of the upper mandible, and slightly "toothed" on its cutting edge. The one specimen in the British Museum certainly came from Charles Island, and we may, therefore, conclude that the other also came from there, and there is certainly no reason to think that it came from Chatham Island. As the skins in the British Museum slightly differ from each other, there is some reason to suspect that they are both aberrations of G. fortis fortis. Otherwise it must have become extinct, as, in spite of special attention being paid to it, none of the recent collectors met with G. dentirostris.

POMAREA NIGRA (SPARRM.)

Muscicapa nigra Sparrmann, Mus. Carlson. I, pl. 23 and text (1786—Society Islands).

Pomarea nigra Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. IV, p. 434 (1879—Full synonymy, description, etc., Society Islands, Marquesas group).

In the list of birds now fully extinct, in the Proceedings of the Fourth Intern. Orn. Congress, I enumerated Pomarea nigra, on the strength of E. L. Layard's statement, P.Z.S. 1876, p. 501, who says: "This bird has undoubtedly become extinct. Large sums have been offered by Messrs. Godeffroy's collectors for the acquisition of a single specimen, but in vain! The very old natives say they remember the bird and call it "Moho."

I, however, overlooked the fact that this note of Layard's referred to the Friendly Islands only, and that this bird has afterwards been obtained in numbers on the Marquesas group. It would, nevertheless, be very interesting to compare specimens from the various islands, viz.: the Society group, Marquesas and Tongatabu, to see if they are perfectly similar.

MIRO TRAVERSI BULLER.

(Plate 5, Fig. 1.)

Miro traversi Buller, B. New Zealand, Ed. I p. 123 (1873—Chatham Islands).

Petroeca traversi Hutton, Ibis 1872, p. 245.

Myiomoira traversi Finsch, Journ.-f.-Orn. 1874, p. 189.

Miro traversi Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. IV p. 236 (1879).

Miro traversi (partim) Buller, Suppl. B. N. Zealand II p. 125? pl. XII (October, 1906).

The late Sir Walter Buller described, in 1873, Miro traversi as follows: "Adult male. The whole of the plumage black, the base of the feathers dark plumbeous; wing-feathers and their coverts tinged with brown, the former greyish on their inner surface; tail-feathers black, very slightly tinged with brown. Irides dark brown; bill black; tarsi and toes blackish brown, the soles of the feet dull yellow. Total length 6 inches; wing, from flexure, 3.4; tail 2.6; bill 0.5, tarsus 1.1; middle toe and claw 0.1, hind toe and claw 0.8 inch."

"Female. Slightly smaller than the male, and without the brown tinge on the wings and tail."

It may be added that Miro traversi is not pure black, but of a somewhat brownish slaty black.

Miro traversi is only known from the Chatham Islands, where it was formerly very common, but, according to a letter from the late W. Hawkins, the cats, which have been introduced to destroy rats and rabbits, have exterminated it. It seems to have disappeared from Warekauri, the main island of the Chatham group, long ago, for H. O. Forbes (Ibis 1893, p. 524) and Henry Palmer found it, in 1890 and 1892, only on the outlying islets of Mangare and Little Mangare.

The bird from the Snares is quite different, being deep glossy black and having a shorter and narrower first primary. I named it M. dannefaerdi. It is to be feared that a similar fate will one day befall it as has, apparently, already befallen its congener from the Chatham Islands.

Sir Walter Buller (Suppl. B.N.Z. II, p. 125) has confounded M. traversi and dannefaerdi, and the figure he gave on his plate looks so black, that I do not doubt it represents rather the latter than the former. Of course M. dannefaerdi alone occurs on the Snares, and Buller's traversi from the Snares were all dannefaerdi. Dr. Finsch's statement (Ibis 1888, p. 308) that Reischek's specimen from the Snares "agreed in every respect with specimens from the Chatham Islands" is entirely wrong, for, even if one prefers unscientifically to lump allied forms, one cannot say that a Miro from the Chathams agrees in every respect with one from the Snares. Buller's doubts about the distinctness of the latter might easily have been removed, if he had taken the trouble to compare them, for it does not require any genius to see the differences. I admit that with my present views on geographical forms I would regard the two Miro as sub-species, and call them M. traversi traversi and M. traversi dannefaerdi, but most ornithologists would still consider them to be "good species."

I may add that Buller, l.c., p. 125, has not quoted my description correctly, for in his rendering are several disturbing misprints, and in the fourth line from the bottom occurs a "not" which ought not to be there, and which makes the sentence incomprehensible. Also the name itself is spelt incorrectly.

I have a series from Mangare and Little Mangare, taken by Henry Palmer in 1890. The egg seems to be unknown.

Habitat: Chatham Islands.

TURDUS TERRESTRIS KITTL.

Turdus terrestris Kittlitz, Mém. Acad. Sc. Pétersburg I p. 245, pl. 17 (1830—Boninsima).

Geocichla terrestris Bonaparte, Consp. Av. I, p. 268 (1850); Seebohm, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. V, p. 183 (1881); Hartert, Kat. Vogels. Senckenb, p. 6 (1891); Sharpe, Monograph Turdidae, I p. 107, pl. 33 (1902).

Cichlopasser terrestris Bonaparte, C.R. XXXVIII, p. 6 (1854).

The following is Dr. Sharpe's description from a specimen in the Leyden Museum: "General colour of the upper parts olive-brown, shading into chestnut-brown on the rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail; the inside web of each feather much darker, approaching black on the back; lores dark brown; eye-stripe very obscure; lesser wing-coverts brown, darkest on the inside web; median coverts dark brown, with large olive-brown tips; greater coverts nearly black, broadly tipped, and narrowly margined towards the base with olive-brown; primary coverts black, with a broad olive-brown patch on the outer webs; tertials dark brown on the inner web, and olive-brown on the outer web; secondaries brown, margined with olive-brown on the outer webs; primaries brown, with the basal half of the outer webs, and a spot where the emargination begins, olive-brown; tail-feathers chestnut-brown; ear-coverts brown; underparts olive-brown, shading into white on the chin, throat, and centre of belly; under tail-coverts dark brown, with irregular diamond-shaped white tips; axillaries brown; under wing-coverts brown. Geocichline markings on inner webs of quills dirty white. Wing 3.8 inches, tail 2.6, culmen 0.85, tarsus 1.07, bastard primary 0.8."

The only person who ever collected this short-tailed Ground-Thrush was Kittlitz, who obtained four specimens, one of which is in St. Petersburg, one in Frankfurt, one in Vienna, and one in Leyden. Neither Holst, nor Alan Owston's Japanese collectors obtained specimens, though their special attention was called to it. Therefore, unless these recent collectors left unvisited the most important island of the group, we must suppose that it became extinct.

Habitat: Bonin Islands, south-east of Japan.

PHAEORNIS OAHENSIS WILSON & EVANS.

Phaeornis oahensis Wilson & Evans, Aves Hawaiienses, Introd. p. XIII (1899—Based on Turdus sandwichensis var. Bloxam, Voy. "Blonde" App. p. 250 (1826—Oahu) and Turdus woahensis Bloxam M.S.)

Nothing is known about this evidently extinct bird, which formerly existed on the island of Oahu, except Bloxam's short description, which is as follows:—"Length 7½ inches; upper parts olive-brown, extremities of the feathers much lighter colour; tail and wings brown; bill bristled at the base."

The corresponding description of Phaeornis obscura in Bloxam's M.S. notes is:—"Length 8 inches; belly light ash; back, tail and wings an ash-brown; bill slender, ¾-in. long, bristled at the base. A beautiful songster."

It is thus evident that Bloxam considered both forms to be distinct, and Messrs. Wilson and Evans were perfectly justified in naming the extinct Oahu form.

We are not aware of any specimens being preserved in any Museum, though Bloxam obtained a skin. Messrs. Wilson and Evans (l.c.) write:—"All the specimens obtained by Mr. Andrew Bloxam, properly prepared and labelled, were placed at the disposal of the Lords of the Admiralty, as shewn by a copy of the letter he wrote to their Secretary, and probably all were sent, as some certainly were, to the British Museum; but no other trace of this unique specimen of a vanished species, which may be properly called Phaeornis oahensis, is now forthcoming."

BOWDLERIA RUFESCENS (BULLER).

(Plate 5, Fig. 3.)

Sphenoeacus rufescens Buller, Ibis 1869, p. 38.

Megalurus rufescens Gray Hand-l. B. I, p. 206. No. 2913. (1869.)

Buller's original description is as follows: "Upper parts, sides, and tail dark rufous brown, brightest on the crown and hind-neck; the feathers of the shoulders and sides centred with black. Quills dusky black, margined with rufous brown. Streak over the eye, throat, breast and abdomen pale fawn colour; sides of the head and ear-coverts marked with black. Bill light brown with the ridge black, feet dark brown." Buller's type probably had been preserved in spirit, as the colouration of fresh specimens is very different to his description. The general colour above and on the flanks chestnut rufous, most feathers with darker or black centres; chin, throat, breast and abdomen pure white; crissum and under tail-coverts whity buff or buffy brown. Wing 2.6 inches, tail 3.9 inches, culmen 0.65 inch.

Habitat: Chatham Islands.

Cats, rats and weasels have exterminated this fine species, which is now quite extinct. Messrs. Travers and Dannefaerd have supplied the specimens in most colonial museums, while Henry Palmer collected the 14 at Tring. A few in Liverpool and two in the British Museum are all known to me in Europe, in addition to those at Tring.

TRAVERSIA ROTHSCH.

See description below. Only one species known.

TRAVERSIA LYALLI ROTHSCH.

(Plate 5, Fig. 3.)

Traversia lyalli Rothschild, Bull. B.O.C. IV p. X (December 29th, 1894); Nov. Zool. 1895, p. 81.

Xenicus insularis Buller, Ibis 1895, p. 236, pl.

Traversia insularis Buller, Suppl. B.N.Z. II p. 109, pl. X (1906).

In 1894 I described this remarkable little bird as follows: "Traversia, gen. nov. Xenicidarum. Differs in several important points both from Xenicus and Acanthidositta. Bill much larger and stouter, very little shorter, if at all, than the tarsus; the latter about as long as middle toe without claw, or the hind toe and claw, while in Xenicus and Acanthidositta it is about twice as long as the hind toe. The principal difference, however, is the weakness of the wing, which suggests flightlessness, as does also the very soft and loose character of the entire plumage, and the very Ralline aspect of the bird. There are only ten tail-feathers, and the scutellation of the tarsus is like that of Xenicus. These two points determine its position in the Xenicidae at once (cf. Sclater, Cat. B. XIV, p. 450).

"The type is: Traversia lyalli, sp. nov.

"Male. Above dark brownish olive-yellow, each feather with a brownish-black border. A narrow distinct yellow superciliary line. Wings and tail umber-brown, the inner webs darker; wing-coverts like back. Chin, throat, and breast chrome-yellow, each feather slightly edged with greyish brown. Flanks, abdomen, and vent pale brown, centre of feathers paler.

"Female. Upper surface umber-brown, each feather bordered with very dark brown; wings and tail similar. Under surface buffy grey, the feathers edged with pale brown. Total length about 4 inches, culmen 0.6, wing 1.8 to 1.9, tail 0.8, but much concealed, tarens 0.75, middle toe 0.65, hind toe without claw 0.5.

"Habitat: Stephens Island, New Zealand. Discovered by Mr. Dr. Lyall, lighthouse-keeper, and sent to me by Mr. Henry H. Travers."

I received nine specimens of this new bird, and was not aware that any others had been taken at that time. As I was unable to attend the December meeting, 1894, of the British Ornithologists Club, I asked Dr. Hartert to exhibit the birds in my name. When he had done so and had read the description, the Chairman, Dr. P. L. Sclater, said that the bird had also been received for illustration and description in the Ibis, from Sir Walter Buller, and he asked Dr. Hartert if I would not withdraw my description. Dr. Hartert said that this was unfortunate, but he had no authority to withdraw my description, and he and Dr. Sharpe thought that the proceedings of the meeting should be printed without consideration of any manuscripts which might refer to the same bird. No doubt this was hard luck on Sir Walter Buller, but it would have been equally hard luck for me if he had forestalled me with the new bird. He had only one specimen, I had nine, of both sexes, and I had paid a high price for them, as types of a new bird. My type is in Tring, and, as everybody knows, available for study by any competent ornithologist, while Buller's type was not in any museum, and it was uncertain to whom he would sell it afterwards. I suppose it is now in the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, to which Buller's third collection, 625 specimens, was sold for a thousand pounds, as Buller himself tells us in his Supplement II, p. 167, under the heading of Glaucopis wilsoni! On the same page Sir Walter Buller also tells us that his "second collection" was sold to me, but he makes a mistake about the price, as I certainly did not pay a thousand pounds for it.

I mentioned these unimportant details, because Buller rather bitterly and severely complained about my describing the Stephens' Island Wren, on p. 111 of his supplement. I may only add that of course my name, being published in December, 1894, has the priority over his, which was not published before April, 1895.

The history of Traversia lyalli is perhaps the most extraordinary of any bird known. All the specimens I am aware of, viz., the eight now in my collection, the type of "Xenicus insularis" in Buller's former collection, one in the late Canon Tristram's collection, one in the British Museum (ex Tring), and two or more offered some years ago by Mr. Travers, were brought in by the lighthouse-keeper's cat. Evidently this feline discoverer has at the same time been the exterminator of Traversia lyalli, and many may have been digested by that unique cat, as in letters received from Mr. Travers I have been told that no more specimens could be obtained, and Buller (l.c.) says: "Very diligent search has been made on Stephen Island for further specimens of the Island Wren, but without success, and there is too much reason to fear that this species has almost immediately after its discovery become extinct."

Habitat: Stephen Island, a small, partly wooded islet, about a square mile in extent, in Cook Strait. It is almost impossible that this bird has only existed on Stephen Island. It must have been overlooked on d'Urville Island or the "mainland," where it probably became extinct—through rats and cats, and similar pests—long ago.

MOHO APICALIS GOULD.

(Plate 4a, 1.)

Yellow-tufted Bee-eater (non Latham!), Dixon, Voyage round the World, p. 357, plate (1789).

Moho apicalis Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1860, p. 381 (? Hawaii).

Acrulocercus apicalis Wilson & Evans, Av. Hawaii, pt. V text and plate (1894).

Moho apicalis Rothschild, Avif. Laysan, etc., p. 223 and plate (1900).

This rarest species of the Mohos formerly inhabited the island of Oahu, where specimens were obtained in 1837, near Enero, by Herr Deppe. The localities of the specimens figured by Dixon and that of the type of Gould are uncertain, but they must have been obtained on Oahu. Since 1837 we have no further traces of Moho apicalis.

The only specimens known are those in Berlin, collected by Deppe, two in the British Museum, and one in my Museum at Tring. The latter, which I obtained in exchange from the British Museum, is the one brought home from the Sandwich Islands by Capt. Lord Byron. There is no specimen of Moho apicalis in the Vienna Museum.

Habitat: Oahu.

CHAETOPTILA SCL.

Chaetoptila Sclater, Ibis 1871 p. 358.

Dr. Sclater justly proposed a new generic term for the "Entomyza" or "Moho" angustipluma of former authors. This bird belongs doubtless to the family of Meliphagidae or Honey-eaters, and the genus is sufficiently distinct from all others. There are no fleshy wattles anywhere. The tail is long and strongly graduated; all the rectrices are obliquely pointed at their tips. The plumage of the body is very soft, that of the head, throat and chest almost fluffy; the feathers of the chin, throat and forehead end in hair-like bristles.

We know only one species.

CHAETOPTILA ANGUSTIPLUMA (PEALE).

(Plate 4a, Fig. 2.)

Entomiza angustipluma Peale, U.S. Expl. Exp., Birds p. 147 pl. XL fig. 2 (1848—Hawaii).

Mohoa angustipluma Cassin, Proc. Acad. Philad. 1855 p. 440.

Moho angustipluma Cassin, U.S. Expl. Exp., Mamm. & Orn. p. 148 pl. XI fig. 1 (1858—Hawaii).

Wilson & Evans, Aves. Hawai. pt. II and plate (1891—Hawaii).

Rothschild, Avif. Laysan, etc., p. 215 and plate (1900).

This remarkable bird, belonging to the family Meliphagidae, used to inhabit the island of Hawaii in the Sandwich Archipelago. It has been said by Mr. Dole to inhabit Molokai, but this is evidently an error. At present nobody on the island of Hawaii has any recollection of its presence, and its former native name is unknown—the name "Kiowea" erroneously quoted by Mr. Dole being that of Numenius tahitiensis. The bird is extinct, though we do not know the reason why it disappeared.

THE ONLY SPECIMENS WE KNOW OF ARE THE FOLLOWING:—

1. The type in the Museum at Washington, U.S.A.

2. One in the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu.

3. One in the Museum of the University at Cambridge, obtained in exchange from Honolulu by Mr. Scott Wilson.

4. One in my Museum at Tring, obtained in exchange from the Honolulu Museum.

The type was obtained by Peale, the three others by the late Mr. Mills on the island of Hawaii.

STRIGICEPS LEUCOPOGON LESS.

Strigiceps leucopogon Lesson, Echo du Monde Savant 1840 (?); Rev. Zool. 1840, p. 266; Suppl. aux œuvres compl. de Buffon, Descr. de Mammif. & Ois, récemm. découverts, p. 277 (1847—Nouvelle Hollande); Hartlaub, Beitrag Gesch ausgest Vögel, in Abhandl. Naturw. Ver. Bremen, 2te Ausgabe, als M.S. gedr., p. 40 (1896).

Nobody has hitherto identified the curious bird described by Lesson, l.c., under the above name. From the generic characters he gives it is evident that it was a bird with a long, curved bill, lanceolate feathers on the head and throat, and long, strongly graduated tail, doubtless belonging to the Meliphagidae. The description of the colouration is as follows:—

"Back, wings and tail bright greenish-olive; quills brown inside; shafts of the rectrices canary-yellow from below, glossy brown-red from above; top of head and neck chestnut, each feather being narrow and streaked with white, then with fawn-colour on the top; the feathers of the throat are elongated and fringed out on their edges, very narrow and lanceolate, grey at base, white at the tips; cheeks, sides of neck and chest ferruginous, some white streaks on the feathers of the chest and in the middle of the throat; flanks and belly clear rufous, passing into canary-yellow on the under tail-coverts. Tail from below greenish-yellow; tarsi horn-colour, bill above brownish, below yellowish with brown tip. Length about eight french inches and a half (0.23 centimètres)." (Translated.)

This bird was said to have come from Australia. I have made enquiries, but the type seems to have disappeared. There is something in the description reminding us of Chaetoptila angustipluma. Unless the description is faulty, this bird came probably not from Australia, but from one of the Pacific Islands. It has not been observed since, and is possibly extinct.

DREPANIS TEMM.

Drepanis Temminck, Man. d'Orn. Ed. II, I p. LXXXVI (1820—"Espèces: Certhia pacifica—obscura—vestiaria et probablement falcata, que je n'ai pas vu.") Type by elimination: Drepanis pacifica.

The name Drepanis is now restricted to the practically extinct "Mamo" of the natives of the Sandwich Islands. Drepanis pacifica has a very striking black and yellow colouration; the somewhat loose-webbed under tail-coverts cover about three-quarters of the tail. The bill is long, curved, non-serrated, the upper mandible a few millimetres longer than the lower jaw. Nostrils large, covered by an operculum. First primary rudimentary, hidden by its covert. There is a silky, soft and fluffy axillary patch of feathers. The tail is slightly rounded. The metatarsus is covered with large, partly fused scutes.

Only one species known.

DREPANIS PACIFICA (GM.)

Great Hook-billed Creeper Latham, Gen. Synops. I p. 703 (1782).

Certhia pacifica Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I p. 470 (1788—ex Latham).

Both Mr. Scott Wilson and myself have at length discussed this beautiful bird in our books on the Hawaiian Avifauna. Of the actual status of this bird in former times we know nothing. Latham described it first (Gmelin named this species after Latham's description) from a pair in the Leverian collection, which is now preserved in the Vienna Museum. About half a century ago several specimens were collected by the late W. Mills near Hilo, on the island of Hawaii, the only island where it existed. Nothing certain was heard of the "Mamo" until, in 1892, my collector Henry Palmer obtained a fine male, which was caught before his eyes by a native birdcatcher. In July, 1898, Mr. H. W. Henshaw saw "at least a pair, possibly a whole family," in the woods of Kaumana, and in 1899 a native heard the, to him, well-known call near the same place. This brings the existence of the Mamo down to the year 1898 or 1899. In view of the futile efforts of Messrs. Henry Palmer, Perkins, Henshaw and others to observe this rare bird again, we may well suppose that this species is either extinct, or will very soon vanish if any are left.

In former times the Mamo was probably more or less common. Its golden yellow feathers were of great value, and, though the majority of the famous war-cloaks are composed of the feathers of Moho nobilis, a few such cloaks are known to consist of Mamo feathers. It is supposed that it took generations to complete such a cape.

I only know of specimens of this bird in Vienna, Leyden, Paris, Honolulu, Cambridge and Tring.

The two examples in the Vienna Museum were obtained by Fichtel at the sale of the Leverian collection. One is perfect, the other has the upper portion of the bill wanting.

HEMIGNATHUS OBSCURUS ELLISIANUS GRAY.

(Plate 4, Fig. 1.)

Hemignathus obscurus Lichtenstein (non Gmelin!), Abh. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1838, p. 440 pl. 5 fig. 1 (Oahu).

Drepanis (Hemignathus) ellisiana Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Is. Pac. Oc. p. 9 (1859—based on Lichtenstein's H. obscurus from Oahu).

Hemignathus lichtensteini Scott Wilson, Ann. & Mag. N. H. ser. 6, vol. IV, p. 401 (1889—Oahu, based on the Berlin specimen).

Hemignathus ellisianus Rothschild, Avif. of Laysan, etc., p. 87 (1893) p. 310 (1900).

We know only of one single specimen, the type of the names ellisianus and lichtensteini, figured and described by Lichtenstein, in 1838, under the name of Hemignathus obscurus. It is true that Lichtenstein says, that Herr Deppe procured several specimens, but there is only one in the Berlin Museum, and we have no knowledge where the others may be, if they are still in existence.

There can hardly be any doubt that H. obscurus ellisianus is extinct on Oahu, where it was discovered by Deppe. All recent collectors, from Wilson and Palmer to this day, have failed to find a trace of it. Although collecting in the dense forests and rugged mountains of Oahu is most difficult, we may suppose that at least one of these collectors would have come across it, if it still existed.

The following is the description made by Dr. Hartert of the type in Berlin:—

"Above greenish olive-brown, more greenish on the back and rump, and somewhat more greyish on the head and hind-neck; the dark bases of the feathers on the head showing through, lores deep brown. A distinct yellow superciliary stripe. Chin, throat, and middle of abdomen dull brownish white (apparently somewhat faded). Upper breast olive-greenish, sides of breast and flanks dull olive-greenish, more olive-brown on the flanks. Wings and tail deep brown, bordered with yellowish green. Under-wing coverts dull white. Bill brown, somewhat horn-brown, but not blackish, as in the other forms of Hemignathus.

It is not probable that the bill and feet are faded, as in specimens of Heterorhynchus lucidus collected and stuffed at the same time and kept side by side with H. o. ellisianus, the bill and feet are still blackish and not brown.

Wing 83.5, tail 53, culmen 56, bill from gape to tip in a straight line 47.5, lower mandible from mental apex to tip 40 mm."

HETERORHYNCHUS LUCIDUS (LICHT.)

(Plate 4, Fig. 2.)

Hemignathus lucidus Lichtenstein, Abh. d. Kön. Akad. Wissensch. Berlin 1838 p. 451, pl. V figs. 2 ♂ 3 ♀ (1839—Oahu).

Heterorhynchus olivaceus Lafresnaye, Mag. de Zool. 1839 pl. X. and text (Oct. 1839).

The Oahu form of Heterorhynchus is now extinct, and specimens are only, as far as we know, preserved in the Museums of Berlin (types of H. lucidus), Boston (type of H. olivaceus), Francfort, Paris, Leyden, London, Cambridge, Liverpool.

In 1838 Deppe saw this bird in great numbers flying round the flowers of the banana plantations. As the bird was apparently common, it is quite possible that specimens are preserved in several other collections, and it would be most welcome if the officials of continental Museums would give information in case they should find specimens of this interesting extinct bird.

Habitat: Oahu.

PSITTIROSTRA PSITTACEA DEPPEI ROTHSCH.

(Plate 4, Fig. 3.)

Psittirostra olivacea Rothschild, Avifauna of Laysan p. 193 (1900—Oahu, ex Lichtenstein nomen nudum & M.S.)

Psittirostra psittacea deppei Rothschild, Bull. B.O.C. XV. p. 45 (1905—new name for the above, the name olivacea being preoccupied by Ranzani).

Psittirostra psittacea psittacea is still one of the commoner birds on most of the Hawaiian Islands, except Oahu, where it was formerly replaced by a closely allied form, P. p. deppei, distinguishable by slightly smaller dimensions, more whitish abdomen in the male, and somewhat more olivaceous upperside. Specimens have been collected on Oahu by Prof. Behn and Herr Deppe, and besides a pair in my collection, I only know of examples in the museums of Berlin and Vienna. There is no trace left of this species in Oahu, and in spite of great efforts Mr. Palmer and all other recent collectors did not come across it. This form has thus shared the fate of Hemignathus ellisianus, Heterorhynchus lucidus, Moho apicalis and Phaeornis oahensis, which have all disappeared from Oahu, while Loxops rufa may still exist in a few pairs, or has possibly followed suit already.

LOXOPS COCCINEA RUFA BLOXAM.

Fringilla rufa Bloxam, Voy. "Blonde" p. 250 (1826).

Loxops wolstenholmei Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club I, p. LVI (1893—Oahu).

Loxops rufa Wilson, Aves Hawaiienses part VI, plate and text (1896); Rothschild, Avif. of Laysan, etc., p. 177 (1900).

This form of Loxops is only found on Oahu, where it is doubtless very rare now, if not already extinct. The last known specimen was shot on April 20th, 1893, in the mountains of the Wailua district, on Oahu, and is in my collection. This is the only specimen obtained by the efforts of recent collectors, and, if any should still exist, we may suppose that their fate is sealed.

L. c. rufa differs from L. coccinea coccinea of Hawaii by its smaller size and more brownish, somberer coloration.

We know of specimens in the British Museum, including the type of Bloxam's Fringilla rufa, in Liverpool, Philadelphia, Berlin, Berlepsch Castle, Vienna and Tring.

CIRIDOPS WILSON.

Ciridops Wilson, Nature 1892, p. 469.

Though formerly supposed to belong to the Fringillidae, it is now generally acknowledged to belong to the family Drepanidae, a peculiar family of different forms restricted in its distribution to the Hawaiian Islands. The genus Ciridops seems to stand nearest to Loxops, from which, however, it is easily distinguished by the form of the bill, the pattern of colouration, stronger feet, and the structure of its plumage, which is somewhat stiff and scanty, while it is soft and rich in Loxops. The feathers of the crown and throat are pointed.

We only know one species belonging to this genus.

CIRIDOPS ANNA (DOLE).

(Plate 4, Fig. 4.)

Fringilla anna Dole, Hawaiian Almanac 1879, p. 49 (Hawaii); reprint in Ibis 1880.

Ciridops anna Wilson & Evans, Aves Hawaienses, Part IV, text and plate; Rothschild, Avifauna of Laysan, p. 183.

The "Ulaaihawane" of the natives of Hawaii is one of the rarest birds known, only three specimens being on record—one, the type, in the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu, and two in my collection. One of these was brought home by Mr. Scott Wilson, who obtained it from Mr. Bishop in Honolulu, the other was shot by a native for my former collector, Mr. Palmer. No other examples have been obtained. As there are still a good many hawane palms in elevated districts of Hawaii, there is, of course, a possibility that a few examples still exist there; but to all intents and purposes Ciridops anna may be looked upon as extinct.

SIPHONORHIS SCL.

Siphonorhis Sclater, P.Z.S. 1861, p. 77. Type: Caprimulgus americanus L.

"The bill is extremely broad at base, the tip strong and heavily decurved; nostrils tubular and very prominent; rictal bristles strongly developed. Wing pointed, third primary longest; tail rounded, almost graduated. Tarsi long and naked. The sexes differ slightly in coloration. (Hartert.)"

SIPHONORHIS AMERICANUS (L.)

(Plate 5a.)

Small Wood-Owle Sloane, Voy. Jamaica II, p. 296, pl. 255, fig. 1 (1725).

Caprimulgus americanus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., Ed. X, p. 193 (1758—Ex Sloane. "Habitat in America calidiore").

Chordeiles americanus Bonaparte, Consp. Av. I, p. 63 (1850).

Siphonorhis americanus Sclater, P.Z.S. 1861, p. 77; id. P.Z.S. 1866, p. 144; Cory, B. W. Indies, p. 139 (1889); Hartert, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XVI, p. 592 (1892).

The whole diagnosis of Linnaeus is "Caprimulgus narium tubulis eminentibus," but the prominent tubular nostrils are just the character which distinguishes S. americanus most strikingly from all the other goatsuckers, and I think that Sloane's figure and description are sufficient to indicate this bird. Sloane says as follows:—

"This was seven Inches from the end of the Bill to that of the Tail, and ten from the end of Wing to Wing expanded, it had a quarter of an Inch long crooked black bill, with two Tubuli about one eight Part of an Inch long for the Nostrills, along the upper Mandible were several bristly Hairs in a Line, like those of a Cat's Mustachoes of a black Colour, the Aperture of Chaps or Swallow was extraordinary large. The Feathers on the Head and under the Chaps were many, the Tail was four Inches long, the Head and Back were cover'd with Feathers of a mixt Colour of Feuille Morte, grey and black, the Wings and Tail were of the same Colour only Lighter under the Chaps, Breast and Belly was also of the same, the Legs and Feet were an Inch and half cover'd with brown Scales, the Toes four, three before, that in the middle three-quarters of an Inch long, and one behind.

"Its Stomach was not very muscular, it was fill'd with Scarabei, &c. The rest of the Bowells agreed in everything with those of the greater Sort, concerning which see the description above.

"They feed on Scarabei and other Insects of that Kind.

"They are found with the former."

Specimens of this Goatsucker are very rare in collections, and I am only aware of the existence of examples in American museums and of the pair obtained by Osburn in Jamaica about half a century ago, and now in the British Museum. Recent collectors have failed to procure it, and it is therefore to be feared that, like Aestrelata caribbaea, it has been exterminated by the introduced mongoose and other animals.

Habitat: Jamaica.

NESTOR PRODUCTUS (GOULD.)

(Plate 6, head.)

Wilson's Parrakeet Latham, Gen. Hist. B. II, p. 170 (1822).

Plyctolophus productus Gould, P.Z.S. 1836, p. 19.

Nestor productus Gould, Syn. Austr. B. and adj. Isl. pt. I, pl., fig. 1 (183—?).

Centrurus productus Bp., Naumannia 1856, Consp. Psitt. No. 265.

Latham's original description is as follows: "Length thirteen inches. Bill very long and hooked, and upper mandible measuring almost two inches, the under three-quarters, colour dusky; plumage in general greenish ash, inclining to brown, and clouded here and there with orange as in the 'Crossbill,' but the edges of the feathers of the back dun colour; all the under parts of the body mixed yellow and dull orange; rump dull red; under wing coverts dull yellow; thighs brown; the quills reach almost to the end of the tail, which is somewhat, but not greatly, cuneiform; both quills and tail are brown, the former marked on the inner webs with five or six whitish bars; legs dusky, toes very long. Inhabits New South Wales. I met with a fine specimen of it in the collection of Thomas Wilson, Esqre."