Dr. Hartert (Vogel pal. Fauna I, p. 115) is of opinion that this bird is connected with _Carpodacus_ and allies, and not with the Greenfinches and Hawfinches, among which it is placed in the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum.
CHAUNOPROCTUS FERREOROSTRIS (VIG.)
(PLATE 3, FIG. 4.)
_Coccothraustes ferreorostris_ (_sic_) Vigors, Zool. Journ. IV p. 354 (1828); id. in Beechey"s Voy. Blossom, p. 22, pl. 8 (1839).
_Fringilla papa_ Kittlitz, Mem. Acad. Imp. Sc. Petersbourg I p. 239, pl. 15 (1830); id. Kupfertaf. Vog. p. 24, pl. 32, 2 (1832).
_Chaunoproctus papa_ Bonaparte, Consp. I p. 526 (1850); Bp. and Schlegel, Monogr. Loxiens p. 32 pls. 37, 38 (1850).
_Chaunoproctus ferreirostris_ Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XII p. 31 (1888).
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."
In the "Catalogue of Birds," XII, p. 31, both s.e.xes are carefully described.
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" (_Sic!_).
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. {10} 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 j.a.pan.
{11}
GEOSPIZA MAGNIROSTRIS GOULD.
(PLATE 3, FIG. 1.)
_Geospiza magnirostris_ Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1837, p. 5 (Galapagos Islands); Rothschild & Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1899 p. 154, 1902 p. 388; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XII, pp. 6, 7 (Fig.); Ridgway, B.
North and Middle America I, p. 495 (1901).
As explained in Nov. Zool. 1899, p. 154, it is uncertain where Darwin obtained the type specimens of Gould"s _G. magnirostris_, as "Unfortunately, most of the specimens of the finch-tribe were mingled together," as Darwin tells us in his "Journal of Researches" (New Edition 1890, p. 420), and he had only "strong reasons to suspect that some of the species of the sub-group _Geospiza_ are confined to separate islands." We are, however, convinced that the types of _G. magnirostris_ can only have come from Charles Island, where it is, probably, the representative of _G.
strenua strenua_. It seems, however, that _G. magnirostris_ exists no longer, for all subsequent collectors have failed to obtain specimens, unless an immature specimen in the U. S. Nat. Mus., from Charles Island (No. 115,905), is a young _magnirostris_ (cf. Nov. Zool. 1902, p. 388).
The dimensions of the three black specimens in the British Museum are as follows: Culmen 26.5, 27, 27; height of bill at base 23.5-24; wing 91, 91, 95; tarsus 25 mm. These measurements--a culmen of over 26.5 and a wing of 91 mm. combined--do not occur among our large series of _strenua_, and therefore it is hardly possible that _G. magnirostris_ is composed of huge examples of _strenua_ only.
As Charles Island has been inhabited for many years it is not at all unlikely that a bird became extinct on that place. On plate 3 is figured _G. magnirostris_ and a head of _G. strenua_ for comparison. {12}
GEOSPIZA DENTIROSTRIS GOULD.
_Geospiza dentirostris_ Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1837, p. 6; Rothschild & Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1899 p. 163, 1902 p. 396.
This curious form differs from _G. fortis fortis_ (Charles Island!) in its bill, which is bowed in towards the end of the upper mandible, and slightly "toothed" on its cutting edge. The one specimen in the British Museum certainly came from Charles Island, and we may, therefore, conclude that the other also came from there, and there is certainly no reason to think that it came from Chatham Island. As the skins in the British Museum slightly differ from each other, there is some reason to suspect that they are both aberrations of _G. fortis fortis_. Otherwise it must have become extinct, as, in spite of special attention being paid to it, none of the recent collectors met with _G. dentirostris_.
{13}
POMAREA NIGRA (SPARRM.)
_Muscicapa nigra Sparrmann_, Mus. Carlson. I, pl. 23 and text (1786--Society Islands).
_Pomarea nigra_ Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. IV, p. 434 (1879--Full synonymy, description, etc., Society Islands, Marquesas group).
In the list of birds now fully extinct, in the Proceedings of the Fourth Intern. Orn. Congress, I enumerated _Pomarea nigra_, on the strength of E.
L. Layard"s statement, P.Z.S. 1876, p. 501, who says: "This bird has undoubtedly become extinct. Large sums have been offered by Messrs.
G.o.deffroy"s collectors for the acquisition of a single specimen, but in vain! The very old natives say they remember the bird and call it "Moho."
I, however, overlooked the fact that this note of Layard"s referred to the Friendly Islands only, and that this bird has afterwards been obtained in numbers on the Marquesas group. It would, nevertheless, be very interesting to compare specimens from the various islands, viz.: the Society group, Marquesas and Tongatabu, to see if they are perfectly similar.
{15}
MIRO TRAVERSI BULLER.
(PLATE 5, FIG. 1.)
_Miro traversi_ Buller, B. New Zealand, Ed. I p. 123 (1873--Chatham Islands).
_Petroeca traversi_ Hutton, Ibis 1872, p. 245.
_Myiomoira traversi_ Finsch, Journ.-f.-Orn. 1874, p. 189.
_Miro traversi_ Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. IV p. 236 (1879).
_Miro traversi_ (partim) Buller, Suppl. B. N. Zealand II p. 125? pl.
XII (October, 1906).
The late Sir Walter Buller described, in 1873, _Miro traversi_ as follows: "Adult male. The whole of the plumage black, the base of the feathers dark plumbeous; wing-feathers and their coverts tinged with brown, the former greyish on their inner surface; tail-feathers black, very slightly tinged with brown. Irides dark brown; bill black; tarsi and toes blackish brown, the soles of the feet dull yellow. Total length 6 inches; wing, from flexure, 3.4; tail 2.6; bill 0.5, tarsus 1.1; middle toe and claw 0.1, hind toe and claw 0.8 inch."
"Female. Slightly smaller than the male, and without the brown tinge on the wings and tail."
It may be added that _Miro traversi_ is not pure black, but of a somewhat brownish slaty black.
_Miro traversi_ is only known from the Chatham Islands, where it was formerly very common, but, according to a letter from the late W. Hawkins, the cats, which have been introduced to destroy rats and rabbits, have exterminated it. It seems to have disappeared from Warekauri, the main island of the Chatham group, long ago, for H. O. Forbes (Ibis 1893, p. 524) and Henry Palmer found it, in 1890 and 1892, only on the outlying islets of Mangare and Little Mangare.
The bird from the Snares is quite different, being deep glossy black and having a shorter and narrower first primary. I named it _M. dannefaerdi_.
It is to be feared that a similar fate will one day befall it as has, apparently, already befallen its congener from the Chatham Islands.