Part 49

Habitat: Middle Island, New Zealand.

{131}

APHANAPTERYX FRAUENFELD.

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

APHANAPTERYX BONASIA SELYS.

(PLATE 29.)

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

Velt-hoenders Reyer Cornelisz, Van der Hagen's voyage (1646).

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

Apterornis bonasia Edm. de Sélys-Longchamps, Revue Zoologique, p. 292 (1848).

Didus herberti Schlegel, Vers. Med. Ak. Wetensch., II, p. 256 (1854).

Didus broecki Schlegel, l.c.

Aphanapteryx imperialis Frauenfeld, Neu aufgef. Abbild. Dronte, p. 6 (1868).

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

Pezophaps broeckii Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Struthiones, p. 4 (1873).

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

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

Habitat: Mauritius.

{133}

DIAPHORAPTERYX FORBES.

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

DIAPHORAPTERYX HAWKINSI (FORBES).

Aphanapteryx hawkinsi Forbes, Nature XLVI, p. 252.

Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi Forbes, Bull. B.O.C.I. p. XXI, 1893.

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

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

Habitat: Wharekauri Island, Chatham Islands.

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