Extinct Birds Part 17

_Nestor norfolcensis_ Pelzeln, Sitzb. k. Akad. Wiss. XLI, pp. 322-325, pl.--(1860--detailed description from the ma.n.u.script of the late botanist, Ferdinand Lucas Bauer, and figure of head with an evidently abnormally developed bill. The specimen was from Norfolk Island; it had disappeared before Pelzeln's time).

Latham's original description is as follows: "Length above 12 inches. Bill very long and curved, thick halfway from the base, but tapering quite to a point at the tip, and under mandible truncated at the end, colour of both, dusky; head and neck dull green; sides under the eyes, chin and throat pale crimson; upper parts of the body, wings and tail dusky; breast yellowish; belly, thighs and vent more or less crimson; tail cuneiform; legs brown."

"One of these was in possession of Governor Hunter, who brought it from Norfolk Island; from the bill it seems related to the other, but the tail is cuneiform in a much greater degree, without any bars across it."

The only bird of this species extant is the one in Liverpool, from the Tristram collection.

Governor Hunter's specimen and Bauer's bird were both brought from Norfolk Island, but as they were cage-birds, and differed so markedly from _N.

productus_, I, for reasons given under _N. productus_, believe this bird came from Lord Howe's Island.

Habitat: Lord Howe's Island (?).

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LOPHOPSITTACUS NEWTON.

The huge bill and peculiar shaped crest, together with the--apparently, _i.e.,_ if the figure is correct--very short wings are characteristic of this genus. (P.Z.S. 1875, p. 350.)

LOPHOPSITTACUS MAURITIa.n.u.s (OWEN).

(PLATE 7.)

_Broad-billed Parrot_ Owen, Trans. Zool. Soc. VI, p. 53 (1866).

_Psittacus mauritia.n.u.s_ Owen, Ibis, p. 168 (1866).

_Psittacus (Lophopsittacus) mauritia.n.u.s_ A. Newton, P.Z.S. (1875), pp.

349, 350.

_Lophopsittacus mauritia.n.u.s_ Newton, Enc. Brit. (ed. 9) III, p. 732, ff. 44, 46 (1875).

This extraordinary parrot was first described and made known to science by Professor Owen in 1866. He described it from 2 lower mandibles, much damaged, which were dug up from the Mare aux Songes. Except a few further osseous remains, mostly collected by Sir Edward Newton, nothing more of importance was found relating to this bird till Professor Schlegel discovered in the Library of Utrecht the ma.n.u.script journal kept during the voyage to Mauritius in A.D. 1601-1602 of Wolphart Harmanszoon, in which among other items of natural history there is a sketch of _Lophopsittacus_ from life, and the statement that it was wholly of a grey-blue colour. From the fact that this bird is not mentioned by the voyagers who visited Mauritius in the 2nd and 3rd decades of the 18th century, it is probable that it was one of the first of the Mascarene birds to become extinct. This is easily understood when we consider that the bird was apparently unable to fly, and would like all big parrots prove excellent eating.

Only known from osseous remains and the above-quoted drawing and notes.

35 tarsi and tibiae, and 60 complete and incomplete lower mandibles and fragments of palatine bones in the Tring Museum.

Habitat: Mauritius.

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ARA TRICOLOR BECHST.

(PLATE 10.)

_Le pet.i.t Ara_ D'Aubenton, Pl. Enl. 641.

_L'Ara tricolor_ Levaill., Perr. I p. 17, pl. 5 (1801).

_Psittacus tricolor_ Bechst., Kurze Ueb. p. 64, pl. I (1811).

_Sittace? lichtensteini_ Wagl., fide Bp., Naumannia 1856, Consp. Psitt.

Bechstein's description, taken from Levaillant, is (translated) as follows: "This _Aras_, which others have held to be only a variety of _Macao_, is according to Vaillant a distinct species. It is one third smaller than the red-fronted species, or 1 ft. 10 in. long, of which the tail takes 11 inches and the bill 18 lines. The latter is of a black colour and has the upper mandible less curved, and the sides of the lower mandible more swollen than is the case in the other _Ara_ species. The cheeks are naked and white, with three lines of red feathers. Head, front and sides of the neck, breast, belly and thighs red; back of the neck pale yellow; back, shoulders and smaller wing coverts brownish red bordered with yellow or green; flanks yellowish, primaries above dark azure blue, below coppery red. Crissum violet blue, undertail coverts pale blue with green and brown-red borders; under-wing coverts red, the larger yellow, and brownish green. Two centre tail feathers all red with blue tips, the outer ones blue on outer webs and tips, red on the rest of the feather."

Of this bird I know only of two in the British Museum, one in Paris, one in Leyden, one in Liverpool. The specimen in the Paris Museum bears the inscription "Macrocercus tricolor (Bechst.) M. E. Rosseau. Cuba. Menagerie 1842." Probably, however, there are more specimens in other museums.

Apparently the last specimen was shot in 1864 at La Vega (Bangs, Americ.

Nat. x.x.xIX, p. 200).

Like all the extinct West Indian Macaws, Amazons and Conures, it became extinct through its persecution by the inhabitants for food.

Habitat: Formerly Cuba and Isle of Pines. {52}

ARA GOSSEI ROTHSCH.

(PLATE 11.)

_Yellow-headed Macaw_ Gosse, Birds of Jamaica, p. 260 (1847).

_Ara gossei_ Rothsch., Bull. B.O.C., XVI, p. 14 (1905); Proc. IV, Orn.

Congr., p. 201 (1907).

_Ara tricolor_ (non Bechstein) Clark, Auk 1905, p. 348.

Mr. Gosse's description is as follows:--"Basal half of upper mandible black; apical half, ash coloured; lower mandible, black, tip only ash coloured; forehead, crown, and back of neck, bright yellow; sides of face, around eyes, anterior and lateral parts of the neck, and back, a fine scarlet; wing coverts and breast deep sanguine red; winglet and primaries an elegant light blue. The legs and feet are said to have been black; the tail, red and yellow intermixed (Rob.)"

Mr. Gosse also remarks, "If this is not the _tricolor_ of Le Vaillant, which is the only Macaw I am aware of marked with a yellow nape, it is probably new."

In spite of the evident differences in the description, the Jamaican _Ara_ has always been united with the Cuban _A. tricolor_, even as lately as October, 1905, by Mr. Austin H. Clark (Auk, 1905, p. 348), though he queries it in a footnote. The specimen described by Dr. Robinson, here quoted by Gosse, was shot about 1765, by Mr. Odell, in the mountains of Hanover parish, about ten miles east of Lucea.

Habitat: Jamaica.

The specimen described no longer exists, and there are none in any collection known.

There was a third member of the _tricolor_ group of Macaws found on the large island of Haiti, which Mr. Clark has also united under _A. tricolor_, but I believe it must have been different, just as the Jamaica bird. {53}

ARA ERYTHROCEPHALA ROTHSCH.