352 Capt. Huttou on Rallus Modestus of New Zealand. 



sions of the birds, are also conclusive evidence that the chick 

 is the young of the older bird. The bird caught in March is of 

 the same size as the one caught in January ; and the plumage 

 of both is identical. The chick has a greyish patch on each 

 car, the rest of the body being covered with brownish-black 

 down, under which feathers are beginning to come forth 

 similar in colour to those of the old bird; the quills have 

 not yet begun to shoot. 



Now the bird caught in January must have been at least 

 a year, and the one caught in March probably fourteen months 

 old ; yet neither of them shows any approach to the plumage 

 of R. dieffenbachii, while both have the tarsi and feet much 

 smaller, whereas the bill is nearly as long as in that species. 

 But the dimensions given above sIioav that the legs and feet in 

 young Rails attain the same dimensions as in the the adult 

 before the bill does ; for the measurements given of the young 

 R. pJiilippensis arc from a recently fledged specimen in the 

 colonial museum, which, except in the head and neck, shows 

 already a marked approach in colours to the adult, although 

 the quills are not yet developed. 



Laying aside therefore all the generic differences between 

 the two birds that I have pointed out, we must assume, if R. 

 modestus is the immature R. dieffenbachii, that this species 

 differs from its nearest allies, as well as from all other Rails, 

 in the young not assuming any signs of the adult dress until 

 it is more than a year old and has bred, also that the legs 

 of the chick grow to the same size as those of the immature 

 bird in about a month, and that growth then stops for at 

 least a year or until the adult plumage commences to be 

 acquired — any of which suppositions, I venture to think, 

 not many " competent ornithologists " will believe. For 

 my part, I think the bird is quite entitled to form a sepa- 

 rate genus. 



The weight of the bird is 1*4 ounce; it inhabits rocky 



places on the island of Mangare, one of the Chatham group. 



It is worthy of remark that the Morioris call this bird " Ma- 



tirakalm," whils the Maoris call R. dieffenbachii " Mokoriki." 



Wellington, N. Z., March 12, 1873. 



