Part 47

Pacific rail Latham, Gen. Syn. III, pt. I, p. 255 (1785).

Rallus pacificus Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, p. 717 (1788).

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

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

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

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 Keulemans' plate was done from Forster's unpublished drawing in the British Museum, and no specimen is in existence.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

Habitat: Tahiti, but evidently long extinct.

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

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NESOLIMNAS ANDREWS.

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

NESOLIMNAS DIEFFENBACHII GRAY.

(PLATE 27.)

Rallus Dieffenbachii Gray, Dieffenb., Trav. N.Z. II App. p. 197 (1843).

Ocydromus dieffenbachi Gray, Voy. Ereb. and Terr., Birds p. 14, pl. 15 (1846).

Hypotaenidia dieffenbachi Bonaparte, C. R. XLIII, p. 599 (1856).

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

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

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

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

Habitat: Chatham Islands.

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

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CABALUS HUTTON.

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

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

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

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