APPENDIX. 557 



Lady Harvey, who purcliased it at a sale in Edinburgh, and 

 whose extensive collection of natural history in that city is 

 always open when science can be promoted, for a specimen of 

 this remarkable bird ; " and adds " we are aware of no exist- 

 ing description, though there is one allusion made to a bird 

 which may eventually turn out to be this. In Mr. Strick- 

 land's Report on the Recent Progress and Present State of 

 Ornithology, read before the British Association at York, it is 

 stated, " The recent American voyage of discovery will extend 

 our knowledge of Polynesian zoology, and its researches will 

 be made known by Mr. Titian Peale, who is said to have 

 discovered among the rarities a new bird allied to the Dodo, 

 which he proposes to name 'Diduncuhs ; ' and we believe 

 * striffirostris ' has been applied specifically." 



In this state the subject remained until the year 1862, 

 when Dr. Bennett communicated some observations on this 

 rare bird to the * Sydney Morning Herald ' of August the 19th 

 and September the 3rd. This latter communication was 

 subsequently read at a Meeting of the Zoological Society of 

 London and published in their ' Proceedings.' The following 

 are its principal features. 



" The Rev. John B. Stair, of Broadmeadows, Victoria," says 

 Dr. Bennett, " who was formerly resident for some time at 

 the Samoan or Navigator group of Islands, which are believed 

 to be the exclusive habitat of this singular bird, informed the 

 Secretary of the Acclimatization Society of Victoria that it is 

 named by the natives *Manu-mea' or Red-bird, from the 

 most predominant colour of its plumage being chocolate-red. 

 It was formerly numerous, and we may therefore be surprised 

 that it should not have been seen and procured by the early 

 navigators ; now it is nearly extinct. It feeds on plantains, 

 and is partial to the fruit of the * Soi,' a species of Dioscorea 

 or yam, a twining plant abundant in the islands, and pro- 

 ducing a fruit resembling a small potato. In disposition it 

 is exceedingly shy and timid. Like the Ground-Pigeons it 



