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Read Ebook: Extinct Birds An attempt to unite in one volume a short account of those Birds which have become extinct in historical times by Rothschild Lionel Walter Rothschild Baron
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Ebook has 961 lines and 93468 words, and 20 pages
In Auk 1891, pp. 301-316, pl. 2.
In Auk 1894, pp. 4-12.
In Nature, Vol. XLVI, p. 252.
In Ibis 1893, pp. 521-546.
In Ibis 1893, pp. 509-520.
In Natural Science II, pp. 374-380.
In: Novitates Zoologicae II, pp. 23-25.
In Bull. Liverpool Museums, I, p. 34, pl. Sturn. I .
In: Jahresbericht Naturwiss. Vereins zu Magdeburg fur 1898-1900.
In Nov. Zool. 1902, pp. 381-418; cf. also Nov. Zool. 1899, pp. 154, 163.
In: Zoologist 1903, pp. 81-88.
In Auk 1903, p. 66.
In: Comptes Rendus des Seances de l'Acad. Sc., Paris 1903
In Bull. Mus. Paris 1903, pp. 318-323, with figures.
In Auk 1905, pp. 259-266.
In Auk 1905, pp. 266-273.
In Auk 1905, pp. 337-344.
In Auk 1905, pp. 345-348.
LIST OF PLATES.
PALAEOCORAX FORBES.
PALAEOCORAX MORIORUM .
Habitat: Chatham Islands, and possibly the Middle Island, New Zealand.
Many skulls and bones in the Tring Museum.
PALAEOCORAX ANTIPODUM FORBES.
FREGILUPUS LESSON.
Huge crest, bill long and curved. One species, extinct.
FREGILUPUS VARIA
Good descriptions and representations of the "Huppe" have been given in many places , but whether they were taken from males or females is generally not known. The sexes seem to be alike in colour, but the female is smaller, and has a shorter and straighter bill than the male. At least, this is the conclusion of Dr. Hartert, who saw the four examples in the museum at Troyes. As far as he could see through the glass all four seemed to be adult birds, but two were larger with longer and more curved bills, two smaller and with shorter and straighter beaks, so that they are evidently two pairs.
This bird seems to have become extirpated about the middle of the last century. The late Monsieur Pollen wrote in 1868 : "This species has become so rare that one did not hear them mentioned for a dozen years. It has been destroyed in all the littoral districts, and even in the mountains near the coast. Trustworthy persons, however, have assured us that they must still exist in the forests of the interior, near St. Joseph. The old creoles told me that, in their youth, these birds were still common, and that they were so stupid that one could kill them with sticks. They call this bird the "Hoopoe." It is, therefore, not wrong what a distinguished inhabitant of Reunion, Mr. A. Legras, wrote about this bird with the following words: "The Hoopoe has become so rare that we have hardly seen a dozen in our wanderings to discover birds; we were even grieved to search for it in vain in our museum."
It seems, indeed, that specimens were killed in 1837 on Mauritius, where they did not originally exist. Verreaux shot an example in Reunion in 1832.
WE ARE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING SPECIMENS PRESERVED IN COLLECTIONS.
NECROPSAR GUNTHER & NEWTON.
NECROPSAR RODERICANUS GUNTH. & NEWT.
The bird evidently became extinct on Rodriguez before 1730, and lingered a little longer on the outlying islets. Only known from bones, mostly collected by the Rev. H. H. Slater, and the above description.
Habitat: Rodriguez and neighbouring islets.
There is one tibia in the Tring Museum.
The figure is coloured according to the description, while the shape of the bird is evident from its bones and relation.
NECROPSAR LEGUATI FORBES.
Dr. Forbes' description is as follows:--"General colour white everywhere, except on the outer webs of distal half of the primaries and secondaries and the outer webs of the newly moulted and both webs of the unmoulted rectrices, which are marked with lighter or darker ferruginous."
Dr. Forbes then gives an exhaustive description of the structure, to which I refer my readers, and the following measurements:--
Culmen 32 mm. Wing 109 " Tail 98 " Tarsus 31.5 "
Habitat doubtful.--The type specimen bears Lord Derby's Museum number, 1792, and a label of Verreaux giving Madagascar as the habitat, which is certainly erroneous.
FOUDIA BRUANTE
Habitat: Reunion or Bourbon.
CHAUNOPROCTUS BP.
CHAUNOPROCTUS FERREOROSTRIS
Vigors' original description, translated from the Latin, is as follows: "Dark brown; head, breast and upper part of abdomen scarlet. Bill very strong, feet plumbeous. Length of body 8-1/2, bill 7/8, at gape 1-3/16, height 7/8; wings from the carpus to the third quill 4-1/2; tail 3, tarsus 7/8 inches."
It appears that only one pair, now in the British Museum, was obtained during Captain Beechey's voyage. Curiously enough, Vigors suggested that the brilliantly coloured adult male might be the young, the female the adult bird, "as is the case in the Pine-Grosbeak" .
Kittlitz, who visited the largest of the Bonin Islands in May, 1828, obtained a number of specimens, of which some are in St. Petersburg, two in Frankfurt-a.-M., one or two in Leyden, and, I believe, in Paris. These seem to be all the specimens known in European museums. Mr. Seebohm's collector, the late Holst, failed to obtain it, and Mr. Alan Owston's men, who several times went to the Bonin group to obtain it, and who were promised good prices for specimens, did not get one. 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. Its frequently heard note is a very fine piping sound. In the crop and stomach small fruit and buds of one kind of tree were found.
Habitat: The largest of the Bonin Islands, south of Japan.
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