424 Mr. L. Brasil on [Ibis, 



in common — neither the size nor the colour of the plumage *. 

 On the other haud_, we have no right to suspect so true 

 and scrupulous an author as Forster of having described a 

 bird which never existed, or of having altered any diagnosis 

 to please his faucy. Instead of looking upon Petroica forsteri 

 as " a myth/^ we are inclined to believe that, supposing the 

 species has not become extinct like so many others since 

 the time of Cook's Voyages in the Southern Seas, it simply 

 has been mixed with another and hidden under its name. 

 By taking up that line and seeking, — not very far — , I am 

 sure Sharpe would have found the solution of the problem. 



Let us go back to the original description. After having 

 largely given the characters of his Tardus minutus from 

 New Zealand, Forster fully describes the bird of Botany 

 Island, thus f : — 



" Aliud hujus aviculae specimine in insula Botany ad 

 Eurum Novae Caledoniae sita, accepi et sic descripsi : 

 (Femina erat). 



" Rostrum atrum, basi trigonum, rectum, apice incurvum ; 

 Mandlbula superior longior, ante apicem emarginata. Faux 

 vibrissis pateutibus cincta. Lingua cartilaginea, ensiformis, 

 subtruncata, bifida, ciliata. Nares oblongae, squamula 

 tectae. Oculi iride fusco-nigricante. Pedes graciles, lon- 

 giusculi, fusco-nigri. Tibiae nulla incisura. Ungues nigrif 

 posticus longior. Caput et genae cinerea. Dorsum et uro- 

 pygium fusco virentia. Superciliada (albi non alba) . Gula, 

 pectus et crissum alba. Abdomen, hypochondria et femora 

 flavescentia. Alae complicatae medium circiter caudae 



, * The opinion that the two bii'ds belong to a single species does not 

 seem to have been that of the companions of Forster. Going over all 

 the natural productions of Botany island, does not Cook himself say 

 (I am only able to make use of a French translation) : — " Un des officiers 

 tira un faucon pareil a ceux qu'on trouve sur les cotes d'Angleterre 

 (Falco Halidetos, voyez la zoologie britannique de M. Pennant), & 

 nous primes une nouvelle espece d'attrappe-mouche " (Cook, Voy. dans 

 I'Hemisph. austr. Trad. fran^. v. pp. 60-61, 1778). This neiv kind of 

 " attrappe-mouche " evidently stands for the second specimen of Tiirdus 

 ininutus in Forster. 



t J. Pt. Forster, he. cit. p. 84. 



