Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild Rothschild

“ My reasons for not uniting these into 7 species and 7 genera, as those of the "lumping school" do, are twofold,—first, the bones of the Ratitae are much more solid than those of other birds, and are not given to so much individual variation; and, secondly, in the face of the great number of species of Paradise Birds and Cassowaries found on New Guinea, the contention that there could not be so many species of Moa on so small an area is not easily maintained. ”

“ All the while they are sitting upon it, or are bringing up their young one, which is not able to provide for itself in several months, they will not suffer any other bird of their species to come within two hundred yards round of the place. But what is very singular is, the males will never drive away the females, only when they perceive one they make a noise with their wings to call their own female—she drives away the unwelcome stranger, not leaving it till it was without her bounds. The female does the same as to males, which she leaves to the male who drives them away. ”

“ He says, when describing the birds of Réunion (translated) : "Hoopoes or 'Callendres,' having a white tuft on the head, the rest of the plumage white and grey, the bill and the feet like a bird of prey; they are a little larger than the young pigeons; this is another good game (i.e., to eat) when it is fat."
This description has generally been accepted as referring to the Fregilupus, though that of the bill and feet is then due to an error of the author, for Fregilupus has the bill and feet of a member of the Sturnidae or family of Starlings. ”

“ We know only of one single specimen, the type of the names ellisianus and lichtensteini, figured and described by Lichtenstein, in 1838, under the name of Hemignathus obscurus. It is true that Lichtenstein says, that Herr Deppe procured several specimens, but there is only one in the Berlin Museum, and we have no knowledge where the others may be, if they are still in existence.
There can hardly be any doubt that H. obscurus ellisianus is extinct on Oahu, where it was discovered by Deppe. All recent collectors, from Wilson and Palmer to this day, have failed to find a trace of it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I personally think that too many species have been made, and at least 7 of Captain Hutton's forms must be sunk. On the other hand some have been described since 1895 and 1900, and I have been obliged to name others rather against my will, so that in spite of uniting so many species of others I find I am obliged to acknowledge more species than anyone else. I have divided these into genera according to Professor Parker's classification, only adding Palaeocasuarius of Forbes, with 3 species, and Megalapteryx, with 5, which brings my number up to 38 species, divided into 7 genera. ”

“ By cutting down or burning the forests, prairies, or scrub, and by bringing the land under cultivation, man indirectly kills off a species through starvation, from extermination of certain insects or plants on which it depends for food. Many species, such as the Moas, were evidently greatly reduced in numbers by cataclysms of Nature, such as volcanic outbreaks, earthquakes, floods, bush fires, etc., and then died out from what appears only explicable by the natural exhaustion of their vitality. ”

“ The digits are very strong, they being armed with hooked nails.
The beak is very stout, arched from its base; the upper mandible, which is much longer than the other and covering it, is as if cut square at the point. The nostrils pierce the bill pretty high up in the horny portion. The eyes, of which I could not see the colour, are round, and placed, like in the entire family, in front. They are surrounded by a circle or disc of stiff, thread-like feathers, which is interrupted at the sides. A sort of collar is perceptible on the throat. ”

“ The pelvis is extremely low and wide, with the anterior wall of the acetabulum very deeply concave, the ventral surface of all the vertebrae behind the true sacrals narrow and convex, and from which the very broad sacral ribs ascend to join the ilium, of which the inferior postacetabular border is very sharp, and descends far below the level of the ribs. There is no pectineal process to the pubis. The tibio-tarsus is very short, with the shaft curved outwards, the distal extremity markedly inflected, and the fibular ridge much shorter than in the other genera. ”

“ The Moas at one time must have been extraordinarily numerous, both in numbers and species, and they varied in height from 21⁄2 feet to 12 feet. Professor Parker has shown that some of the species had crests of long feathers on the head, and, as some adult skulls of the same forms show no signs of this, he infers that the males alone had this appendage. There has been much discussion as to the time when the Moas became extinct, and we know for certain that the two species, Dinornis maximus and Anomalopteryx antiquus, belong to a much earlier geological epoch than the bulk of the other species. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I felt obliged to name a number of species acknowledged by Parker and Lydekker but not named, because this system of indicating species by the letters A, B, C, &c., which has crept into our nomenclature, will make all understanding impossible, as not always the same species is denoted by the same letter. A few of these species will naturally later have to be sunk, as some have been founded on skulls and others on leg bones, or so, which, when we get perfect individual skeletons may prove to be identical, but I do not think these will be many. ”

“ I believe that the genus Pennula should be placed near Porzanula, but its wings are softer, the rectrices are next to invisible, but can be felt, as they have stiff shafts and are about 13 mm. long, though being entirely hidden by the soft tail-coverts. The tibia is bare for about 7 mm., the metatarsus covered in front with nearly a dozen transverse, very distinct scales, and distinctly reticulated behind. The bill much as in Poliolimnas and Porzanula.
Two species can be recognized: Pennula millsi, with a uniform upper surface, and Pennula sandwichensis, with a distinctly spotted upper side. ”

“ Moreover, we have strong support in the present fauna and flora for the presumption that, when the Moas first came into existence and differentiated into species, New Zealand was a much larger area, stretching at least from the Macquarie Islands in the south to the Kermadecs in the north, and from Lord Howe's Island on the west to the Chatham Islands on the east. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As big as the Solitaires; they have the plumage entirely blue, the beak and the feet red and made like those of fowls; they do not fly at all, but run extremely quickly, so that a dog can hardly catch them; they are very good."
Habitat: Bourbon or Réunion.
Dubois gives the size of these birds as the same as that of a big goose and the feet as being like those of a fowl: I have, therefore, in reconstructing the plate of this bird, had it made intermediate in structure between the New Zealand Notornis and Aptornis, which were evidently its nearest allies. ”

“ Labat's description reads thus:—"Those of Dominica have some red feathers on the wings, under the throat, and in the tail; all the rest is green (Amazona bouqueti, W.R.) . Those of Martinique have the same plumage as the last mentioned, but the top of the head is slate colour with a small amount of red." ”

“ I am therefore convinced that for some unknown reason this bird became extinct, though there is still the possibility that the recent collectors did not collect on the main island of the group, which alone was visited by Kittlitz.
Kittlitz tells us that he found it in the woods along the coast, but not numerous. That it keeps concealed, is very phlegmatic, and is so little shy that one is obliged to go back for some distance, before shooting, if one wishes to preserve the specimen. Kittlitz saw it but seldom on high trees, mostly on the ground. ”

“ The skull is very short and wide, with a blunt and slightly deflected rostrum, and a very small pneumatic foramen to the quadrate. The mandible is in the shape of a wide U, with a slightly inflected angle, and a large post-articular process. The symphysis is very wide and deeply excavated, with a broad and slightly prominent inferior ridge narrowing in front. The sternum resembles that of Anomalopteryx, but the pelvis is much wider and approaches that of Pachyornis. The tibio-tarsus and tarso-metatarsus are relatively shorter and thicker than in Anomalopteryx, but less stout than in Pachyornis ”

“ Leguat's description is as follows:—
"Our 'gelinotes' are fat all the year round and of a most delicate taste. Their colour is always of a bright grey, and there is very little difference in plumage between the two sexes. They hide their nests so well that we could not find them out, and consequently did not taste their eggs. They have a red naked area round their eyes, their beaks are straight and pointed, near two and two-fifths inches long, and red also. They cannot fly, their fat makes them too heavy for it. ”

“ The species are larger than most of those of Cela and Anomalopteryx. Additional cranial characters are that the skull usually has very broad and blunt paroccipital processes; there is no distinct supraoccipital prominence, and no well-marked depression upon the frontal aspect of the squamosal above the head of the quadrate. The basi-occipital tubercles are prominent, and give an arched posterior profile to this bone. The quadrate is elongated with a long anterior bar; the cavity of the squamosal for the reception of its head is inclined much more outwardly than in either of the other genera. ”

“ In the case of others, where an author fears to name a form, but gives the distinctive characters and quotes only Casuarius species or Emeus sp., unless the author and page are quoted, confusion must arise, and so in both cases I have thought it easier for reference and also more concise to name all these forms which have been described or differentiated without a binomial or trinomial appellation. ”

“ The feet relatively to the head are extremely short, and from this I conclude that we know no species of Heron which can be compared to that of Rodriguez. Nevertheless, the tarso-metatarsus presents all the characters {112}of Ardea, and is far removed from that of Botaurus. The tibia is big and short; it surpasses in length the tarso-metatarsus by about a third, as is usual in the Herons; but the femur on the contrary is strongly developed, being quite as large as in the Ardea cinerea ”

“ I call them fair, because they are the colour of fair hair; they have a sort of peak like a widow's, upon their breasts, which is of a dun colour. No one feather is straggling from the other all over their bodies, they being very careful to adjust themselves, and make them all even with their beaks. The feathers on their thighs are round like shells at the end, and being there very thick, have an agreeable effect. They have two risings on their craws, and the feathers are whiter there than the rest, which livelily represents the fine neck of a beautiful woman. ”

“ They are extremely high mounted, and have very long necks. Their bodies are not bigger than that of a goose. They are all white, except a little place under their wings, which is reddish. They have a goose's bill, only a little sharper; their claws are very long and divided." This bird was apparently confined to the island of Mauritius.
Professor Newton asserts that Leguat's "Géants" were Flamingos, principally because bones of Flamingos have been found in Mauritius and not a single bone has ever been got of the "géant." ”

“ Recent authors—Oustalet 1893, W. A. Forbes 1879, and Salvadori (Cat. B. XX, p. 421, 1891) —have admitted a separate genus, Mascarinus. This is evidently the proper course, and I agree with W. A. Forbes, Oustalet and Salvadori that its nearest affinities appear to be the genus Tanygnathus rather than Coracopsis, and that the place of Mascarinus is among the Palaeornithinae of Salvadori.
The large red bill, with distinctly ridged gonys, concealed nostrils and moderately long, strongly rounded tail, are peculiar characters. The colouration is unique. Only one species is known. ”

“ Milne-Edwards remarks, among other notes, that "This bird is not a true Bittern, but its head is so large and its feet so short that it is easy to understand that Leguat should have called it so."
The bony structure of the head is remarkable on account of its massive and thick proportions; the skull itself is strongly enlarged posteriorly, and the temporal fossae are bordered by very pronounced ridges, especially those on the occipital region. The upper side of the skull is hardly convex, and the interorbital region is large, but only slightly depressed along its middle line. ”

“ Inhabits New South Wales. I met with a fine specimen of it in the collection of Thomas Wilson, Esqre."
It has long been a question whether Nestor productus of Gould and Nestor norfolcensis of Pelzeln were really distinct or only individual varieties of one species. I had for a long time considered them to be merely individual varieties, for I could not persuade myself that a small island like Philip Island, almost contiguous to Norfolk Island, could have a different species of Nestor to that found on the larger island. ”

“ The genus Chaunoproctus contains only one species, which is characterized by its enormous bill, the depth of the mandible being greater than the distance between the nasal apertures. The cutting-edge of the maxilla is nearly straight, and there is no tooth in the posterior half of the maxilla. The total length is about seven to eight inches. The adult male has red in the plumage, the female is brown, above and below. ”

“ DINORNITHIDAE.
Skull with a short and wide beak. Pectoral girdle very small or absent, wing absent, only an indication in Dinornis dromioides. Hallux absent or present. An extension bridge to the tibio-tarsus, which is placed near the inner border of the bone. No superior notch to the sternum. Most of the species of very large size. The tarso-metatarsus is either long and slender or short and wide, and its anterior surface may or may not be grooved. ”

“ Man has destroyed, and is continually destroying species directly, either for {ix}food or for sport, but also in many other ways he contributes to their destruction. Some species have been exterminated by the introduction of animals of prey, such as rats, cats, mongoose, etc., and we know that also the acclimatisation of other birds, such as the mynah, etc., has proved to be harmful to the native birds. ”

“ When these birds build their nests, they choose a clean place, gather together some palm leaves for that purpose, and heap them up a foot and a half high from the ground, on which they sit. They never lay but one egg, which is much bigger than that of a goose. The male and female both cover it in their turns, and the young is not hatched till at 7 weeks end. ”

“ This Quail, though a typical Coturnix, is easily distinguished from all other species. The male has the upper-side almost black, each feather bordered and indistinctly barred with rufous-brown, and with a wide, creamy white shaft-line. The throat and sides of the head are rufous-cinnamon, the feathers of the chest and breast at their basal half buff with a broken black cross-bar, the distal half black, with two pale buff spots near the tip, or with a continuous white border. ”