Extinct Birds Part 29

Total length 64-88 mm.

Width in front 35-48 "

Width behind costal facets 26-36 "

Width at posterior border 27-35 "

_Coracoidals._

Total length 59-67 mm.

Width at lower extremity 17-18 "

_Humerus._

Total length 118-180 mm.

Width of proximal extremity 20-27 "

Width of distal extremity 16.5-24 "

Width of shaft 7-11 "

_Metacarpals._

Total length 62-98 mm.

Width of proximal extremity 12-17 "

Width of distal extremity 7-11 " "

The anonymous author of the ma.n.u.script "Relation de l'ile Rodrigue" (see Ann. Sci. Nat. (6) II p. 133 et seq. 1875) about the year 1830 mentions this bird as follows:--"There are not a few Bitterns which are birds which only fly a very little, and run uncommonly well when they are chased. They are of the size of an Egret and something like them."

Habitat: Rodriguez Island.

2 Humeri, 2 Femora, 2 Tibiae, and 2 Metatarsi in the Tring Museum. {114}

ARDEA DUBOISI NOM. NOV.

_Butors ou Grands Gauziers_ Dubois, Les Voyages faits par le Sieur D.B.

(1674) p. 169.

L'Abbe Dubois is the only author who has, as far as I can ascertain, told us that the Island of Reunion also had a large almost flightless Heron as well as Mauritius and Rodriguez; and so feeling sure that it, like most other birds of this island, was distinct I name it after him.

The translation of his original description is as follows:--"Bitterns or Great Egrets, large as capons, but very fat and good. They have grey plumage, each feather spotted with white, the neck and beak like a Heron, and the feet green, made like the feet of Poullets d'Inde (_Porphyrio_, W.R.). This bird lives on fish."

Habitat: Reunion or Bourbon. {115}

ARDEA MAURITIANA (NEWT. & GAD.)

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

289 (1893).

The bones on which this species is founded are a pair of ulnae, one radius, four metatarsi, and one coracoid. The description is as follows:--"The bones in question are all considerably shorter than the corresponding bones of _A. (Nycticorax) megacephala_. The metatarsi agree otherwise in every detail with those of the latter species; this relative stoutness indicates that they belonged to a Night-Heron or Bittern like _A. megacephala_. The two ulnae cannot, unfortunately, be compared with those of _A.

megacephala_; their length, 110 mm., compared with the length of the humerus of _A. megacephala_, 119 mm., shows, however, likewise that they were those of a considerably smaller bird. The single left coracoid agrees in all the features of its dorsal or scapular half with _A. megacephala_, but its ventral or sternal half differs considerably, first by the much more strongly marked ridge of the _linea intermuscularis_ on its ventral surface, secondly by the almost straight instead of inwardly curved margin between the _processus lateralis_ and the lateral distal corner of the sternal articulation, thirdly by a very low but very distinct and sharp ridge, which arises from the median margin of the coracoid, a little above its median articulating corner. This roughness or prominent ridge is entirely absent in _A. megacephala_ and in all other Herons which we have been able to examine, but at least a slight indication of it occurs in an individually varying degree in _Nycticorax_ and _Botaurus_. That this coracoid bone belonged, however, to an Ardeine bird is clearly indicated by its whole configuration, notably by the shape and position of the precoracoid process, the various articulating facets at the dorsal end, and the prominent lip on the visceral or internal surface of the median portion of the sternal articulating facet."

The following are the measurements:--

Length of ulna 111-112 mm.

Length of metatarsus 81- 87 "

Length of coracoid 48 "

Habitat: Mauritius.

Although _megacephala_ and _mauritiana_ have been placed in _Ardea_ and _Butorides_ respectively, from the short, stout legs and general build, I am inclined to think that all three of these Herons belong to the genus _Nycticorax_.

{117}

PROSOBONIA BP.

This genus is, in the Catalogue of Birds, placed in a section with somewhat long tarsus, the latter being longer than the culmen, containing in addition to _Prosobonia_ the genera _Tringites_, and _Aechmorhynchus_ (see afterwards), and it differs from the latter by its long hind toe, from the former by its square tail. The position of this singular bird is, however, not quite certain. The late Henry Seebohm placed it in the genus _Phegornis_, though the latter has no hind toe whatever, and it has even--but doubtless wrongly--been suggested that it belonged to the _Rallidae_, rather than to the _Charadriidae_. We know only one species. It is true that Dr. Sharpe bestowed a new name on the figure of Ellis, which is said to have been taken from an Eimeo-specimen, but it is hardly creditable that it belongs to a different species. Latham appears to have had three specimens, which were all three different from each other. Both Forster and Ellis, in their unpublished drawings in the British Museum, as well as Latham, evidently considered all three to belong to the same species, and it is not advisable now to over-rule their verdict, given with the specimens before them, merely on account of the different plumages, since we all know that most waders, and especially brightly-coloured ones, differ considerably in plumage, according to age and seasons. We are convinced that "_P. ellisi_" has been a younger bird. Sharpe attaches importance to the different habitat, but this is no argument in this instance, because Eimeo is, at the nearest point, not more than seven and a half miles from Tahiti,[2] and it is quite against all precedents among _Charadriidae_ and beyond all plausibility that two such closely situated islands have closely allied forms of a Wader.

{118}

PROSOBONIA LEUCOPTERA (GM.)

(PLATE 35.)

_White-winged Sandpiper_ Latham, Gen. Syn. III, pt. 1, p. 172, pl.

Lx.x.xII (1785--Otaheite and Eimeo).

_Tringa leucoptera_ Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, p. 678 (1788--ex Latham!); Westermann, Bijdr. Dierk. I, p. 51, pl. 15 (1854--Figure of the type).

_Tota.n.u.s leucopterus_ Vieillot, Nouv. Dict. d'Hist. Nat. (Ed. II) VI, p. 396 (1817).

_Calidris leucopterus_ Cuvier, Regne Anim. I, p. 526 (1829).

_Tringa pyrrhetraea_ Lichtenstein, Forster's descr. anim. p. 174 (1844--Otaheiti).

_Prosobonia leucoptera_ Bonaparte, Compt. Rend. x.x.xI, p. 562 (1850); Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXIV, p. 525 (1896).

_Tringoides leucopterus_ Gray, Handl. B. III, p. 46 (1871).

_Phegornis leucopterus_ Seebohm, Geogr. Distrib. Charad. p. 452 pl. 18 (1888).

_Prosobonia ellisi_ Sharpe, Bull. B.O.C. XVI, p. 86 (1906--"Eimeo").

Dr. Sharpe's description, made from the type in the Leyden Museum, is as follows: "Adult. General colour of upper surface blackish brown; the lower back and rump ferruginous; centre tail-feathers blackish, the rest rufous, banded with black, less distinctly on the two next the middle pair; wing-coverts blackish, with a white spot near the carpal bend of the wing, formed by some of the lesser coverts; crown of head blackish, the hind-neck browner, mixed with black; sides of face brown, the lores and ear-coverts slightly more reddish, behind the eye a little white spot; cheeks and under surface of body ferruginous red, the throat buffy white. Length 6.7 inches, culmen 0.9, wing 4.45, tail 2.15, tarsus 1.3 (Mus. Lugd.)"