Extinct Birds Part 16

CIRIDOPS WILSON.

_Ciridops_ Wilson, Nature 1892, p. 469.

Though formerly supposed to belong to the _Fringillidae_, it is now generally acknowledged to belong to the family _Drepanidae_, a peculiar family of different forms restricted in its distribution to the Hawaiian Islands. The genus _Ciridops_ seems to stand nearest to _Loxops_, from which, however, it is easily distinguished by the form of the bill, the pattern of colouration, stronger feet, and the structure of its plumage, which is somewhat stiff and scanty, while it is soft and rich in _Loxops_.

The feathers of the crown and throat are pointed.

We only know one species belonging to this genus.

CIRIDOPS ANNA (DOLE).

(PLATE 4, FIG. 4.)

_Fringilla anna_ Dole, Hawaiian Almanac 1879, p. 49 (Hawaii); reprint in Ibis 1880.

_Ciridops anna_ Wilson & Evans, Aves Hawaienses, Part IV, text and plate; Rothschild, Avifauna of Laysan, p. 183.

The "Ulaaihawane" of the natives of Hawaii is one of the rarest birds known, only three specimens being on record--one, the type, in the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu, and two in my collection. One of these was brought home by Mr. Scott Wilson, who obtained it from Mr. Bishop in Honolulu, the other was shot by a native for my former collector, Mr.

Palmer. No other examples have been obtained. As there are still a good many hawane palms in elevated districts of Hawaii, there is, of course, a possibility that a few examples still exist there; but to all intents and purposes _Ciridops anna_ may be looked upon as extinct.

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SIPHONORHIS SCL.

_Siphonorhis_ Sclater, P.Z.S. 1861, p. 77. Type: _Caprimulgus america.n.u.s_ L.

"The bill is extremely broad at base, the tip strong and heavily decurved; nostrils tubular and very prominent; rictal bristles strongly developed.

Wing pointed, third primary longest; tail rounded, almost graduated. Tarsi long and naked. The s.e.xes differ slightly in coloration. (Hartert.)"

SIPHONORHIS AMERICa.n.u.s (L.)

(PLATE 5A.)

_Small Wood-Owle_ Sloane, Voy. Jamaica II, p. 296, pl. 255, fig. 1 (1725).

_Caprimulgus america.n.u.s_ Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., Ed. X, p. 193 (1758--Ex Sloane. "Habitat in America calidiore").

_Chordeiles america.n.u.s_ Bonaparte, Consp. Av. I, p. 63 (1850).

_Siphonorhis america.n.u.s_ Sclater, P.Z.S. 1861, p. 77; id. P.Z.S. 1866, p. 144; Cory, B. W. Indies, p. 139 (1889); Hartert, Cat. B. Brit. Mus.

XVI, p. 592 (1892).

The whole diagnosis of Linnaeus is "Caprimulgus narium tubulis eminentibus," but the prominent tubular nostrils are just the character which distinguishes _S. america.n.u.s_ most strikingly from all the other goatsuckers, and I think that Sloane's figure and description are sufficient to indicate this bird. Sloane says as follows:--

"This was seven Inches from the end of the Bill to that of the Tail, and ten from the end of Wing to Wing expanded, it had a quarter of an Inch long crooked black bill, with two _Tubuli_ about one eight Part of an Inch long for the Nostrills, along the upper Mandible were several bristly Hairs in a Line, like those of a Cat's Mustachoes of a black Colour, the _Aperture_ of Chaps or Swallow was extraordinary large. The Feathers on the Head and under the Chaps were many, the Tail was four Inches long, the Head and Back were cover'd with Feathers of a mixt Colour of _Feuille Morte_, grey and black, the Wings and Tail were of the same Colour only Lighter under the Chaps, Breast and Belly was also of the same, the Legs and Feet were an Inch and half cover'd with brown Scales, the Toes four, three before, that in the middle three-quarters of an Inch long, and one behind. {44}

"Its Stomach was not very muscular, it was fill'd with Scarabei, &c. The rest of the Bowells agreed in everything with those of the greater Sort, concerning which see the description above.

"They feed on _Scarabei_ and other Insects of that Kind.

"They are found with the former."

Specimens of this Goatsucker are very rare in collections, and I am only aware of the existence of examples in American museums and of the pair obtained by Osburn in Jamaica about half a century ago, and now in the British Museum. Recent collectors have failed to procure it, and it is therefore to be feared that, like _Aestrelata caribbaea_, it has been exterminated by the introduced mongoose and other animals.

Habitat: Jamaica.

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NESTOR PRODUCTUS (GOULD.)

(PLATE 6, head.)

_Wilson's Parrakeet_ Latham, Gen. Hist. B. II, p. 170 (1822).

_Plyctolophus productus_ Gould, P.Z.S. 1836, p. 19.

_Nestor productus_ Gould, Syn. Austr. B. and adj. Isl. pt. I, pl., fig.

1 (183--?).

_Centrurus productus_ Bp., Naumannia 1856, Consp. Psitt. No. 265.

Latham's original description is as follows: "Length thirteen inches. Bill very long and hooked, and upper mandible measuring almost two inches, the under three-quarters, colour dusky; plumage in general greenish ash, inclining to brown, and clouded here and there with orange as in the 'Crossbill,' but the edges of the feathers of the back dun colour; all the under parts of the body mixed yellow and dull orange; rump dull red; under wing coverts dull yellow; thighs brown; the quills reach almost to the end of the tail, which is somewhat, but not greatly, cuneiform; both quills and tail are brown, the former marked on the inner webs with five or six whitish bars; legs dusky, toes very long. 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. Since commencing to write this book, however, I have come to somewhat different conclusions. In the first place no special locality is given for _N.

productus_ by the earlier authors, in the same way as in the case of _Notornis alba_, which, like the _Nestor_, was said to come from N. S.

Wales. This fact is easily explained, as N. S. Wales and Norfolk Island were both penal settlements in the early days, and there was intercourse by regular vessels plying between these colonies and Lord Howe's Island. Now we find in the case of several other birds that distinct local forms occur on Norfolk and Lord Howe's Islands, while as far as I know there is no other record of a distinct bird from Philip Island. I therefore believe that _Nestor productus_ inhabited both Norfolk and Philip Islands, and that all specimens extant are from Philip Island, where it lingered some years longer than on the main island, while the specimens of Ferdinand Bauer and Governor Hunter, and possibly the supposed _N. norfolcensis_ of {46} Canon Tristram's collection, now in Liverpool, had been brought from Lord Howe's Island in cages and were kept as pets in Norfolk Island; and then, as the value of exact data in those early days of our science was unknown, the references were made to the place whence the specimens were seen or brought. One thing however is certain, the bill in Ferdinand Bauer's sketch is evidently a monstrous growth produced by captivity, for Latham expressly describes the bill of Governor Hunter's bird as ending in a long thin point. The differences of _N. norfolcensis_ are the dull crimson sides of face, chin, and throat; dull green head and hind neck, and the total absence of bars on the tail. The plate given herewith is a reproduction of the Liverpool bird, with the bill of Ferdinand Bauer's sketch added, as this is wanting in that bird, and in the corner a head of the specimen of _N. productus_, purchased for the Tring Museum, when the late Mr. Wallace's Museum at Distington, c.u.mberland, was dispersed.

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. The one from the Bell collection has the long, thin bill, but it is at least half-an-inch to three-quarters shorter than those in the Tring and Florence specimens.

Habitat: Philip Island and probably Norfolk Island.

One in Tring, three in London, one in Florence, two in Vienna, one in Prague, two in Leyden, one in Amsterdam, are known to me.

The two specimens in the Vienna Museum were both bought in 1839. One from Ward, with a short bill, brown chest and throat, and a very wide yellow breast-band. The other from Baron von Hugel, which has a long bill and very red cheeks and chin. {47}

NESTOR NORFOLCENSIS PELZELN.

(PLATE 6, full figure.)

_Long-billed Parrakeet_ Latham, Gen. Hist. II, p. 171 (1822).