( 688 ) 



ON A NEW MIBO FROM THE NEW ZEALAND REGION. 

 Bv THE HON. WALTER ROTHSCHILD. 



WHEN receiving:, among niiuiy other birds, a large series of a uiiilonn lilack 

 M/'ro from the Snares Ishmds, I was first struck liy tlieir beautiful glossy 

 black, which I had not seen in the series of Miio tratersi Bull, from the Chatham 

 Islands collected by Henry Palmer and W . Hawkins. On comparing these birds 

 I found that the Miro from the Snares was constantly (I can say this because 

 I have before me over twenty specimens of each) of a deeper and more glossy 

 black than the rather brownish black Miro trawrsi from Mangare and I-ittle 

 Mangare, Chatham Islands, that the former was smaller, and, above all, that 

 its first primary was constantly mnch smaller and narrower, being less or e(]ual 

 to half the second primary, while in ^f. truversi it is longer than half the second. 

 I therefore do not hesitate to distinguish the Snares bird as a new species, which 

 I name, after the collector, 



Miro dannefaerdi sp. no v., 



and which may be characterised as follows : — 



Miro aterrima, differt a specie M/ro tracersi dicta, non modo colore aterrima, 

 sed etiam prima remigc multo breviore ac augustiore, et magnitudine minore. 



Hab. Snares, south of New Zealand. 



Total length about 51 inches : wing 3-06 — 3-26 inches, average 'i-'l (in M. 

 traversi 3-2— 3-4, average 3-3) ; tail 2-6— 2-7 (in .V. iraversi 2-6.J— 2-8) ; bill O-O ; 

 tarsus 0"9 — U-9o ; first primary 1 — 1-1 (in J/, tracersi 1-3 — 1-3.5 I) ; second primary 

 l-O— 2-1. 



(Type in my Museum.) 



Fii'st und Socuml 

 PriiuiiiT of 

 Miro trtLvcrii. 



Fii^t and .Scconti 



Primary of 

 Miro itanit^atrUi. 



