Extinct Birds Part 34

_Notornis mantelli_ Owen, Trans. Zool. Soc. III, p. 377, pl. LVI, figs.

7-11 (1848).

This species was founded on a nearly entire skull, collected by Walter Mantell at Waingongoro, North Island, New Zealand. This skull is more than twice the size of that of _Porphyrio melanotus_. The basisphenoidal surface, however, is flatter, the anterior angle projects below the base of the presphenoid, and there is a slender ridge continued from each paroccipital to the lateral angles of the platform, the posterior angles being hemispheric tubercles as in _Palapteryx_.

The occipital region inclines forwards as it rises, while the same is more vertical in _Porphyrio_. The post-frontal is broader than in _Porphyrio_.

The chief distinction from that of _Porphyrio_ is, however, the almost regular four-sided figure of the skull. The breadth of the anterior part is almost exactly that of the occipital region, and the extent of the sides is not much more than that of the front and back part. The parieto-frontal region of the skull is very unlike that of _Porphyrio_, being convex and oblong, and _Notornis_ also lacks cerebral or hemispheric convexities. Owen gives a large number of other differences, but I refer my readers to the original article as above, pp. 366-371. I, however, must state here, as is already mentioned by Mr. Hamilton, Trans. N.Z. Inst. XXIV, p. 176, 1892, that the _Dinornis_ skull, with which Professor Owen compared _Notornis_, referred by him to _D. casuarinus_ is really that of _Aptornis defossor_ (_vide_ Trans. Zool. Soc. III, pl. 52, figs. 1-7), and, therefore, it is quite natural that Professor Owen found a great likeness to _Dinornis_ in _Notornis_, as the skull he compared it with was really that of the Ralline _Aptornis_, and not the Struthious _Dinornis_ at all.

Habitat: North Island, New Zealand.

Dr. H. O. Forbes, Trans. N.Z. Inst., discusses at length measurements of tibiae and femora of _Notornis_, provisionally naming the skeleton in the Otago Museum _Notornis parkeri_, as a new species, but I consider we must wait for confirmation till we get an a.s.sociated skeleton of _N. mantelli_.

{142}

NOTORNIS HOCHSTETTERI A.B.M.

(PLATE 34.)

_Notornis Hochstetteri_ A. B. Meyer, Abbild. Vogelskelett, Lief. IV & V, p. 28, pl. x.x.xIV-x.x.xVII (1883--South Island, New Zealand); Zeitschr. ges. Orn. II, p. 45, pl. I (1885--figures of the bird).

_Notornis mantelli_ (non Owen 1848!) Gould, P.Z.S. London, 1850, pl.

21; Trans. Zool. Soc. London IV, pl. 25 (1850); Gould, B. Austr.

Suppl., pl. 76 (1869); Buller, B. New Zealand, pl. (1873); Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXIII, p. 208 (1894).

The name _Notornis mantelli_ having been based on a cranium and some leg-bones from the North Island, and the bones of a specimen from the South Island, showing marked differences, Dr. A. B. Meyer was fully justified in describing the latter form as different, under the name of _N.

hochstetteri_.

According to the describer there are considerable differences in the cranial bones, but the comparison of the leg-bones shows such differences in size that these alone would be sufficient to separate the North and South Island forms. The femur of _N. hochstetteri_ measures 109, that of _N. mantelli_ 122, the tibia of the former 165, the tarso-metatarsus 109, the tibia of the latter 200, the tarso-metatarsus 129 mm. For further measurements see A. B. Meyer, Abbild. Vogelskelett I, p. 30.

The upper surface is olive-green with some slaty-blue shading, the quills are black with purplish blue outer webs; rectrices blackish, green on the outer webs. Head, neck, and under surface purplish blue, thighs more blackish. Under tail-coverts white, frontal plate and bill bright red, yellow towards the tip of both mandibles. Feet red.

Although this bird is evidently not extinct, a specimen having been captured as late as 1898, it seems that not many examples live at present in New Zealand, as they have been sought after a good deal, and yet only four have been taken so far, _i.e._, the two in the British Museum, one in the Dresden Museum, and the last-mentioned one.

Full accounts of the capture of this last specimen have been given in the Trans. New Zealand Inst.i.tute, x.x.xI, pp. 146-150, and in Sir Walter Buller's Supplement to the Birds of New Zealand, I, pp. 66-74, where, however, the year of the capture is not mentioned, though one can guess that it must have taken place shortly before the articles on it appeared.

Habitat: Middle Island, usually called South Island, apparently nearly extinct. {143}

NOTORNIS STANLEYI (ROWLEY).

_White gallinule_, Voy. of Gov. Phillip to N.S.W., p. 273, c.u.m tab.

(1789).

_Porphyrio stanleyi_ Rowley, Orn. Misc. I, p. 36, pl. IX (1875).

_Porphyrio melanotus_ (part.) Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. XXIII, p.

205 (1894).

_Porphyrio alba_ G. R. Gray, List Birds N.Z., &c., Ibis 1862, p. 214.

The first to point out the differences between the bird now in the Liverpool Museum and the specimen in Vienna was Mr. Dawson Rowley. The original description of the anonymous author of Phillip's Voyage is as follows:--

"This beautiful bird greatly resembles the purple Gallinule in shape and make, but is much superior in size, being as large as a dunghill fowl. The length from end of bill to that of the claws is two feet three inches. 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 s.e.x, supposed to be the male, is said to have some blue on the wings."

Gray states under _Porphyrio alba_, in Ibis 1862, p. 214: "It is stated that a similar kind was found on Lord Howe Island which was incapable of flight. The wings of the male were beautifully mottled with blue."

Dr. H. O. Forbes, in the Bulletin of the Liverpool Museums, Vol. III, No.

2, pp. 62-68 (1901), gives an exhaustive account of Rowley's type, in which he comes to the conclusion that the bird is not a _Porphyrio_ but a _Notornis_, and that it is also probably a specimen of _Notornis alba_.

That it is a _Notornis_ I equally believe; but I think the length of the wing-coverts in the type of _N. alba_, puts it out of the question that the two birds could be the same. Moreover, the two original pictures of Phillip and White show this difference of the wings very well. I have therefore kept the two separate, and I feel sure if we had other specimens with exact data we should find this a parallel case to that of _Nesonetta aucklandica_ of the Auckland Islands and _Anas chlorotis_ of New Zealand, and that _Notornis alba_ of Norfolk Island was a still further degenerate form to the already flightless _N. stanleyi_ of Lord Howe Island. Wing nine inches.

Habitat: Lord Howe Island. {144}

NOTORNIS ALBA (WHITE).

(PLATE 33.)

? _White gallinule_ Callam, Voy. Botany Bay (1783?) (teste Gray).

_Fulica alba_ White, Journ. Voy. N.S.W., p. 238 and plate (1790).

_Gallinula alba_ Latham, Ind. Orn. I, p. 768 (1790).

_Porphyrio albus_ Temminck, Man. d'Orn. II, p. 701 (1820).

_Porphyrio melanotus var. alba_ Gray, Voy. Ereb. and Terror, Birds, p.

19 (1844).

_Porphyrio melanotus_ Gray, Voy. Ereb. and Terror, Ed. II (1846), p.

14.

_Notornis ? alba_ Pelzeln, Sitz. k. Akad. Wiss. Wien. XLI, p. 328 (1860).

_Notornis alba_ Salvin, Ibis 1873, p. 295, pl. X.

There has been considerable confusion in connection with this bird and the following species, owing to the fact of White not having given any locality for the specimen on which Latham founded his _Gallinula alba_, and which is now in the Vienna Museum. That the Vienna specimen is really White's bird is proved because it was bought at the sale of the Leverian Museum, and White expressly states that all his birds were deposited in the Leverian Museum.

It is quite impossible to say with _certainty_ which of the two forms, _Notornis alba_ or _N. stanleyi_, came from Norfolk Island, as we have no indication of the origin of the Liverpool specimen. But seeing that in the anonymous work, "The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay," the first mentioned habitat is Lord Howe Island, and the figure shows a bird with the shorter wing-coverts of _N. stanleyi_, I think I am justified in taking the bird with longer wing-coverts--viz., _Notornis alba_, to be the bird from Norfolk Island.

White's description is as follows:--"White Fulica, with bill and front red, shoulders spined, legs and feet yellow." White's figure clearly shows the long wing coverts characteristic of the genus _Notornis_. Von Pelzeln says in his account of this bird that there is a label on it bearing the number 102, and giving as place of origin Norfolk Island, but White makes no mention of this. There are traces of a bluish shade, and two or three dark spots on the plumage, which has led many ornithologists to consider _N.

alba_ an albino. Gray, in "A List of Birds from New Zealand, &c.,"[3]

remarked that some Norfolk Island specimens had blue between the shoulders, and the back spotted with the same colour. He also states that the young are said to be black, then become bluish grey, and afterwards pure white.

From these and other authors' similar remarks I believe we have not here a case of albinism, but a bird which was in a stage of evolution towards becoming a fixed white species. Wing 9 inches (measured by myself in the Vienna Museum).

Habitat: Norfolk Island.