1032 WEKA 
shore (whence one of its names—Kelp-hen) and feeding chiefly 
on shell-fish and other marine products, while that which is 
commonly identified with the latter ranges widely through the 
interior of the South Island of New Zealand—examples from 
the western side of the Alps being however apparently distinguish- 
able by wanting the barred flanks, and in that respect resembling 
another form which inhabits the North Island, and is, according 
to Sir W. Buller who named it 0. greyi, peculiar thereto.t That 
these three or four forms should be justly considered good species 
is very probable; but that more species should exist in New 
Zealand seems unlikely. What was presumably an Ocydromus, and 
if so was doubtless a distinct species, inhabited Norfolk Island, 
when discovered by Cook (uf supré, ii. p. 148), but it must have been 
long extinct, and no specimen is known to exist.” Another species, 
O. sylvestris, smaller and lighter in colour than any we now have, 
was found in 1869 to linger yet in Lord Howe Island (Proc. Zool. Soc. 
1869, p. 472, pl. xxxv.), where the existence of such a bird was long 
ago known, and the remains of a few individuals are preserved in 
collections.? A remarkable form from New Caledonia, originally 
described as Gallirallus lafresnayanus, was referred by Mr. Sclater 
1 It was for some time called O. earli, the name under which Dr. Sharpe 
(tom. cit. p. 66) still has it, but Sir Walter (B. NV. Zeal. ed. 2, ii. p. 105) states 
that the type of that form (Jb7/s, 1862, p. 238) agrees with some specimens from 
the South Island, and he recognizes it as a distinct species. He also admits an 
O. brachypterus which is certainly not that of Lafresnaye, and if distinct should 
probably be called O. hectori. An extinct species has been indicated by Mr. H. 0. 
Forbes (Tr. NV. Z. Inst. 1892, p. 188) from the Chatham Islands. 
2 The subject of Sparrman’s figure, above mentioned, may possibly have been 
from this island, the birds of which were distinguished by their bright colouring 
(cf. NESTOR, p. 628). 
3 It has lately been referred by Dr. Sharpe, though its affinity is not explained, 
to the genus Cabalus, the type of which is Radlws modestus, a small species 
(Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxiii. 
p- 331, pl. vi.) perhaps 
still surviving on one of 
the Chatham Islands, 
which some ornitholo- 
gists have refused to 
acknowledge, holding it 
to be the young of R. 
dieffenbachi (itself also 
AQ" referred occasionally to 
\ \\\ \ Ocydromus, but being 
apparently a modified 
Hypotenidia), known 
from the unique specimen in the British Museum; but the judgment of its 
original describer, Capt. Hutton, is now admitted, and should never have been 
doubted after his full account of it (Zbis, 1873, pp. 849-352). 
RALLUS DIEFFENBACHI. (From Buller.) 
