Walter Rothschild

“ 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. ”

“ Nobody can doubt that the Great Auk is extinct. The last specimens were obtained on Eldey, near Iceland, in 1844, and the seas and islands where the great bird used to live are frequented by vessels every year. It is true that a certain Lorenz Brodtkorb told that in April, 1848, he saw four Great Auks, of which he shot one, near the Varanger Fjord, east of the North-Cape, but Professor Newton and Wolley have, in 1855, had an interview with Brodtkorb, and came to the conclusion that he saw and shot the Great Northern Diver. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The melancholy fact however remains that man and his satellites, cats, rats, dogs, and pigs are the worst and in fact the only important agents of destruction of the native avifaunas wherever they go.
I have not included in the body of this work the fossil species from the pleistocene of Europe, Asia, Australia and America, as I believe that these belonged to an avifauna of an epoch considerably anterior to those attributed to the pleistocene of New Zealand and the adjacent islands, as well as that of the Mascarenes and Madagascar. ”

“ I give the proportions of the three bones in Palaeocasuarius elegans, Megalapteryx tenuipes, and Pachyornis elephantopus, which are the three most nearly allied genera:
The original diagnosis was as follows, being founded on the tibio-tarsus: "The tibio-tarsus differs from that of all other genera in being straighter and less twisted on itself, so that the position of the ridge forming the inner wall of the groove for the tendons of the extensor muscles run along the inner side of the bone as in Casuarius. ”

“ 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 male and female both cover it in their turns, and the young is not hatched till at 7 weeks end. 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. ”

“ This is the original description:—
"The feathers of the males are of a brown-grey colour, the feet and beak are like a turkey's, but a little more crooked. They have scarce any tail, but their hind part covered with feathers is roundish, like the crupper of a hare. They are taller than turkeys. Their neck is straight, and a little longer in proportion than a turkey's when it lifts up his head. Its eye is black and lively, and its head without comb on cop. They never fly, their wings are too little to support the weight of their bodies ”

“ Newton and Gadow give the measurements of, and describe a pair of metatarsi procured with the remains described as Strix sauzieri, and state that they do not fit in with that species. For, as they are fully adult bones, it is impossible to attribute their much smaller size to youth. They then add a sentence of which this is the first part: "Unless we assume, what is unlikely, that the Island of Mauritius possessed two different species of Strix, we have to conclude that the short pair of metatarsals belonged to a small individual of Strix sauzieri, ——." ”

“ 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 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 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Of their habits we only have the accounts of Leguat:—
"Though these birds will sometimes very familiarly come up near enough to one, when we do not run after them, yet they will never grow tame, as soon as they are caught they shed tears, without crying, and refuse all manner of sustenance till they die.
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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The sternum is puny and small as compared with the creature's size. It is clearly that of a bird not furnished with powerful wings, and is even much less elongated than in the Bittern, but the coracoidal bones are very long and slender. The wings also were short and feeble, the humerus being hardly as big as in Butorides atricapilla. It is conspicuously slenderer and shorter than in the Bittern. The main body of the bone is slightly curved on the outside, and the lower articular condyle is large and flattened. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Dr. Finsch's statement (Ibis 1888, p. 308) that Reischek's specimen from the Snares "agreed in every respect with specimens from the Chatham Islands" is entirely wrong, for, even if one prefers unscientifically to lump allied forms, one cannot say that a Miro from the Chathams agrees in every respect with one from the Snares. Buller's doubts about the distinctness of the latter might easily have been removed, if he had taken the trouble to compare them, for it does not require any genius to see the differences. ”

“ I have carefully examined the three fine specimens of Nestor productus in the British Museum, and the conclusion I have come to is that the bird described by Gould as the adult of his N. productus was an abnormal specimen, and was in relation to normal N. productus what the aberrations called "superbus" and "esslingi" are to N. meridionalis. The bills of the British Museum specimens are very different. ”

“ 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. The second trochlea is longer than the fourth, the third is not pedunculated, and there is no perforation in the groove between the third and fourth trochlea. ”

“ The bill is very stout, and the colour of it, the whole of the top of the head and the irides red; the sides of the head round the eyes are reddish, very thinly sprinkled with white feathers; the whole of the plumage is, without exception, white. The legs the colour of the bill. This species is pretty common on Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, and other places, and is a very tame species. The other sex, supposed to be the male, is said to have some blue on the wings. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In former times the Mamo was probably more or less common. Its golden yellow feathers were of great value, and, though the majority of the famous war-cloaks are composed of the feathers of Moho nobilis, a few such cloaks are known to consist of Mamo feathers. It is supposed that it took generations to complete such a cape.
I only know of specimens of this bird in Vienna, Leyden, Paris, Honolulu, Cambridge and Tring.
The two examples in the Vienna Museum were obtained by Fichtel at the sale of the Leverian collection. One is perfect, the other has the upper portion of the bill wanting. ”

“ 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. 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 ”

“ It is most unfortunate that the larger number of authors have neglected to go carefully into the synonymy of this bird; if they had done so it would not have been necessary, after 81 years, to reject the very appropriate name of ater, and to rename the Emu of Kangaroo Island. Vieillot, in the Nouveau Dictionnaire D'Histoire Naturelle X, page 212, distinctly states that his Dromaius ater was a name given to Latham's Casuarius novaehollandiae, and makes no mention of Péron or of the Isle Decrès. ”

“ In the humerus the sub-trochanterial groove is bigger, and particularly wider than in typical Fulica. The iliac grooves are larger than in Fulica newtoni, the pelvic knob is more extended, and the sciatic foramen is larger. The first sacral vertebrae are stunted below the median sinus, while in the Mauritius species one observes a very stout one, occupying the four first vertebrae of the pelvis. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”