Extinct Birds Part 26

_Scapula._

Width at proximal extremity 23 mm.

_Radius._

Length 24 mm.

_Ulna._

Width at middle of shaft 10 mm.

_Metacarpus._

Greatest width at proximal extremity 31 mm.

Length of spur 26 "

Width of second metacarpal 9 "

Habitat: Madagascar.

{97}

CNEMIORNIS OWEN.

Skull short and ma.s.sive, with beak rounded and stout. Carina of sternum aborted. Limb-bones short and very stout, the ulna being shorter than the humerus, and having very prominent tubercles for the secondaries; cnemial crest of tibia greatly developed. No foramen between third and fourth trochleae of tarso-metatarsus. Spines of dorsal vertebrae tall. The power of flight was absent. The chief differences from _Cereopsis_ were the presence of extra pre-sacral vertebrae, so that two only instead of three ribs articulate with the sacrum; and an elevated pent-roof arrangement of the _ossa innominata_, which indicate more decided cursorial habits.

CNEMIORNIS CALCITRANS OWEN.

_Cnemiornis calcitrans_ Owen, Trans. Zool. Soc. V, p. 396 (1865).

"The type species. Very considerably larger than the existing _Cereopsis novaehollandiae_, with the limbs relatively much stouter and shorter"

(Lydekker).

Height of back from ground 26 inches.

Length from beak to tail 34 "

Habitat: Middle Island, New Zealand.

For full description see Trans. N. Z. Inst. VI, pp. 76-84, pls. X-XII (1874). {98}

"CNEMIORNIS GRACILIS" FORBES.

_Cnemiornis gracilis_ Forbes, Trans. N.Z. Inst. XXIV, p. 187 (1892) (_Nomen nudum_).

"A most elegantly moulded goose from the North Island." Unfortunately this is all that has been published about this form!

Habitat: North Island, New Zealand.

CNEMIORNIS MINOR FORBES.

_Cnemiornis minor_ Forbes, Trans. N.Z. Inst. XXIV, p. 187 (1892); vide also Trans. N.Z. Inst. VI, pp. 76-84 (Hector).

This species appears to be distinguished from _Cnemiornis calcitrans_ by its very small size, being hardly bigger than _Cereopsis novaehollandiae_.

Habitat: Middle Island, New Zealand.

{99}

CEREOPSIS NOVAEZEALANDIAE FORBES.

_Cereopsis novaezealandiae_ Forbes, Trans. N. Zealand Inst. XXIV, p.

188 (1892).

This species was founded on an incomplete skull, and differed from _C.

novaehollandiae_ by its slightly larger size.

Habitat: New Zealand.

{101}

SARCIDIORNIS MAURITIa.n.u.s NEWT. & GAD.

_Sarcidiornis mauritia.n.u.s_ Newton & Gadow, Trans. Zool. Soc. XIII, p.

290, pl. x.x.xIV, figs. 9-10.

The evidence on which this species is founded is a single left metacarpal and an incomplete left half of the pelvis. Its specific character is the very large size as compared to the two existing species.

Habitat: Mauritius.

In an old work ent.i.tled "Memorandums concerning India" by J. Marshall (1668) in the article on the Island of Mauritius, there occurs this pa.s.sage: "They are many Geese; the halfe of their wings towards the end are black and the other halfe white; they are not large, but fat and good.

Plenty of Ducks." As there is no mention of the caruncle on the bill here or in other authors alluding to geese in Mauritius, Oustalet doubted that these geese were this _Sarcidiornis_, but I believe this merely to have been an oversight of Marshall's and that his description goes far to prove the distinctness of Newton and Gadow's species.

The allusion to the small size also points to the geese of Marshall being the _Sarcidiornis_. L'Abbe Dubois in "Les Voyages du Sieur D.B." records the fact that on Bourbon were some wild geese slightly smaller than the geese of Europe but having the same plumage. Their bill and feet were red.

It is also probable that wild geese were found on Rodriguez. There is nothing to show what these Bourbon geese were, and as no osseous remains of such birds have been found as yet it is impossible to do more than mention the fact of such birds having been recorded.

{103}