Fern-bird from the Snares Islands. 523 



smaller bill aud shorter tail. This is not the case with the 

 bird from the Snares, which is altogether appreciably larger, 

 the bill being more robust and the tail so conspicuously 

 different that I have named the species from that feature ; 

 that is to say, instead of its being composed of Emu-like 

 feathers with disunited barbs, the webs are closely set and 

 compact, not differing in any way from the typical tail- 

 feathers of the extensive family to which this genus belongs. 

 Mr. Gray says of his bird that " the black streaks and dots 

 are less pronounced than in Sphenneacus punctatus," which is 

 not true of the present bird ; and he adds that ''the abdomen 

 is white, more or less minutely dotted with black,^"" a descrip- 

 tion which is equally inapplicable to this species. In INIr. 

 Gray^s bird the white superciliary streak is more pronounced 

 than in Sphenceacus punctatus, in this species it is less so. 



The form which I am now distinguishing appears to be 

 intermediate between Sphenceacus punctatus of New Zealand 

 and Sphenceacus rufescens, mihi, of the Chatham Islands; 

 and its occurrence on the Snares is the more interesting as 

 another inhabitant of these islets is the Chatham- Island 

 Robin [Miro traversi, mihi) , which has never yet been found 

 in New Zealand. 



Sphen(eacus caudatus, sp. nov. 



^ ad. similis S. punctate, sed pauUo major; ubique Isetius 

 fulvescens, piumis vix ita distiucte medialiter lineatis ; 

 pectore etiam minus distincte maculato ; remigibus rec- 

 tricibusque ochracesceuti-fulvis; cauda minus acuminatfi, 

 scapis plumarum hand nudis, sed omnino plumiferis. 

 Long. ala3 2'75 poll., caudoe 3"5, rostri '5, tarsi "85. 

 $ mari similis. 

 Hah. Inss. Snares, maris Novi-Zelandici. 

 This is the Sphenceacus fulvus of my ' Birds of New 

 Zealand ' (2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 61). The specimens therein 

 referred to as having come from the South, without any 

 locality being assigned, must, I now feel assured, have come 

 from the Snares. They readied me through dealers, and 

 it is almost impossible, in such cases, to obtain reliable 

 particulars. 



