( 373) 



ON SOME UNFIGURED BIRDS. 



(Plates I. and II.) 

 By ERNST HARTERT. 



PI. I. : Monias benschi Oust. & Grandid. 



In the Biilletimhi .Viiscum <rfIis(oire Xatiirelle, Paris, vol. i.\., 1903, pp. 10-12, 

 Messrs. Oustalet & Grandidier described a very peculiar new bird from Vorondreo, 

 25 kilometres east of Tiile.ir, in Madagascar, which they called Monias benschi, 

 in honour of Monsienr Bensch, Administrator of Madagascar, who had i)resented 

 the type, a nniijue s])ecimen, to the Paris Musenm. 



The authors snggested that this bird, which is undoubtedly the representa- 

 tive of a new genus, might belong to the Rallidae, but they truly said that this 

 supposed position in the system was only a suggestion, and that it was always 

 difficult, and often even dangerous, to decide about the actual position and 

 affinities of a bird of which one possessed only a skin, without skeleton. 



About a year ago or so we received from Mr. W. F. H. Rosenberg in 

 London three skins of Monias benschi, killed near Tulear, in Madagascar, the 

 actual " terra typica " of this species. The type of this bird was described as a 

 female, while two of our birds are said to be males, one a female. The female 

 agrees with the original descrijition, having the feathers of the chin and fore- 

 neck reddish chestnut, with white bases and white outer edges, not quite 

 e.Ktending to the tij), thus producing a rufous chestnut appearance, mottled with 

 white ; the jugular region is more rusty brown, and each feather has a roundish 

 black spot near tlie tip. The two "males" have the throat and foreneck white, 

 and a black line runs down the sides of the neck, commencing very narrowly 

 under the eye, and widening towards the shoulders; the jugulum is also white, 

 with a ro;nulish or heart-shaped spot near the tip of each feather. Otiierwise the 

 sexes are similarly marked and coloured. 



With regard to the systematic position, we can at present only make 

 Puggestions, having, like Messrs. Oustalet & Grandidier, only skins before us ; these 

 skins, though a little better than the type specimen, are very badly prei)ared, a 

 fact which does not by any means facilitate their study. I should say that probably 

 the authors are right in suggesting tiuit Monias b^jlongs to the Rallidae, unless 

 it forms a new family. 



The curved bill reminds one at first sight of a Poinatorhinus, but Manias cannot 

 be a Passerine bird. The head is somewhat flat on toj) ; the nostrils are slit- 

 like, and lie in a longitudinal groove which extends about to the middle of the 

 beak. The nostrils are not pervious, as in most Kails, bnt as there are excep- 

 tions among the Hails (Rhinochetus'), this alone could not decide against the 

 Ralline affinities. The feathers are soft, downy (flnffyi at base, the plumage is 

 tight and close. Wings rounded, the first aliont two-thirds of the longest, the 

 fourth, fifth, and sixth about equal and longest, the longest secondaries about 

 as long as the primaries. Tail long and rounded, consisting of fourteen, not 

 twelve, rectrices. Upper tail-coverts reaciiing nearly to the middle of the tail. 



