98 Transactions. — Zoology. 



FULICA. 



Quite recently Mr. H. 0. Forbes has announced in the news- 

 papers the discovery of a curious Ealline form {Aphanapte- 

 ryx ?) in the Chatham Islands, and with it he found bones of a 

 coot (Fulica), which he describes as " closely allied to Fulica 

 newtoni, found at the Mauritius with the Aphanapteryx and 

 the dodo." 



Our cave has produced abundant evidence that we have 

 had here in this Island a large Fulica, also closely allied to, 

 if not identical with, Fulica newtoni. I have now a consider- 

 able number of bones of nearly all parts of the skeleton, 

 including three crania. (See Table below.) 



It is possible that further investigation may prove that, 

 notwithstanding the great distance separating the localities — 

 half the circumference of the globe — the species is F. new- 

 toni. As, however, it will be convenient to have a name for 

 this species, I propose calling the Fulica from Castle Eocks 

 F. prisca. 



It must have been a bird nearly as large as the Notomis, 

 but with a small head, and a frontal shield like the pukeko 

 and Notomis. There is evidence to show that F. newtoni 

 had a white shield, and was of a black or brown colour. Like 

 its congener, it was probably a bad flier but a good swimmer. 

 The genus is not represented in our list of existing birds, but 

 Mr. Colenso has described" a small bird probably of this 

 group, which he met with many years ago on the Waikato 

 River. 



I have also had a report from a sportsman who killed a 

 small bird answering to Mr. Colenso's description in a swamp 

 near Wanganui, but by an accident the specimen was lost. 

 On the Australian Continent, Mr. De Vis, of the Queensland 

 Museum, has described and figured! a fossil humerus from the 

 Chinchilla deposits of the Darling Downs, as Fulica 'prior. As 

 it is uncertain whether the two fragments belong to the same 

 bone, measurements could not be taken, but it is evidently much 

 smaller than the New Zealand species. The range of varia- 

 tion in the measurement of the bones of the legs obtained in 

 the cave is considerable, but Giinther and Newton,]: in \their 

 note on the Mauritian species, do not let a difference of 

 20mm. in the tibiae of full-grown birds (a seventh of the length 

 of the longest specimen) deter them from including in one 

 species these widely different figures. 



* Tasmanian Journal Nat. Science, 1845. 



t P.L.S. N.S.W., vol. iii., pi. xxxv., figs. 9a, 9b. 



I Phil. Trans. E. S. Lond., vol. clxviii., p. 434. 



