Part 48

One species known.

CABALUS MODESTUS (HUTTON).

(PLATE 28.)

Rallus modestus Hutton, Ibis 1872, p. 247. (Mangare, Chatham Islands.)

Cabalus modestus Hutton, Trans. New Zeal. Inst. VI p. 108. (The genus Cabalus established.)

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

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

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

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

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

Young. Uniform brownish black.

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

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

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

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

Habitat: Chatham Islands, east of New Zealand.

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OCYDROMUS MINOR HAMILTON.

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

Ocydromus minor Hamilton (nec. Forbes) l.c.

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

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

Minor. Sylvestris.

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

Habitat: Middle Island, New Zealand. Extinct.

OCYDROMUS INSIGNIS FORBES.

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

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