|{^ 



. J , ^-j On an undescribed Bird from the Island of Rodriguez. 



and the latter broadly bordered with pitch-black ; shafts and 

 lower surfaces greyish-black. Secondaries much the same as 

 the primaries^ but of a still deeper shade. Breast dull greyish- 

 glaucous, but lighter than the upper parts, and passing on the 

 belly into verditer, which becomes lighter and greener on the 

 vent. Rectrices beneath yellowish-grey, darker toward the tips 

 of the longer feathers. Bill black; legs and toes — (?), claws dark 

 horn-colour. The skin of the chiu, where the feathers are scanty, 

 of a bright red when the specimen was taken from the spirit. 



I would remark that this bird is by no means to be regarded 

 as a mere representative species or conspecies of either of the 

 forms already known to inhabit the Mascarene islands {Palteornis 

 eques or P. wardi), but thoroughly distinct and not very nearly 

 allied to them, or indeed to any other species. I should have 

 liked, according to what I hold to be the best practice in no- 

 menclature, to have given it a specific name in some way de- 

 scriptive of its appearance ; but this I have found difficult, and 

 therefore, in the belief that in this glaucous bird we see one 

 of the " Perroquets verds & bleus " of Leguat, I have chosen a 

 name for it which may help to commemorate the first writer 

 who seems to have observed it — and in bestowing upon it the 

 appellation of PalyEornis exsul have had in my mind the exile 

 through whose means we are in some degree acquainted with 

 the marvellous original fauna of the island which was to him pro- 

 ductive of so much happiness as a prelude to so much misery. 



Since I received the specimen above described, two bones 

 which 1 believe to belong to the same species have reached 

 me from my brother. They are a portion of a lower mandible 

 and a fragmentary sternum, and were sent to him by Mr. Jenner 

 as having been found in a cave with bones of Pezophaps and 

 other birds, an account of which will in due time be published. 



The editor of ' The Ibis ' kindly offered me a figure of the 

 type specimen of this species; but as it is unluckily that of a 

 female bird, I refrain from giving one, trusting that before long 

 Mr. Jenner's exertions will enable us to furnish a representative 

 of the other sex, which is not unlikely to prove a bird of greater 

 beauty. 



Magdalene College, Cambridge, 

 10 November, 1871. 



