A Reference List of the Birds of New Zealand. 213 



Gallirallus hectori (Huttoii). South Island Wood-Hen. 



Ocydromus hectori Hutton, Trans. New Zeal. Inst. vol. vi. 

 1874, p. 110 : Te Anau, South Island. 



Synonyms : — 



Oojdromus australis BuUer, Suppl. vol. i. p. -58. 

 Ocydromus hectvri id. ib. p. 60. 



Range: — South Island (breeding). 



Xote : — The Wood-Hens of New Zealand constitute a 

 most puzzling group, and though such ornithologists as 

 Buller^ Finsch, Newton, Sharpe, and Hutton have all 

 attempted to unravel the puzzle, apparently none ever tried 

 to fi.x; the correct nomenclature to he used for the forms thev 

 recognised. When one reads of these authors ])lacing 

 O. hectori and 0. brachypterus as pure synonyms, though 

 one is described as black, the other as yelloiv, a great 

 confusion can be anticipated. It is not astonishing, then, 

 to find that the well-known generic name Ocydromus is 

 untenable, being pre-occupied {cf. Iredale, Nov. Zool. 

 vol. xviii. 1911, p. 22). The next trouble is the correct 

 identification of Sparrman's Rallus aastralis: the description 

 reads " Corpus supra ferriiyi/ieo-fuscuni, subtus cinereo- 

 ferrugineuni." 



This is certainly applicable to Forster's Rallus troglodytes, 

 which was procured at Dusky Sound. Gmelin's Rallus 

 • troglodytes is a translation of Latham^'s Troglodyte Rail 

 (Gen. Synops., Birds, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 229. no. 3). This 

 article is headed " Lev. Mus.," and his description is drawn 

 up from Forster^'s accounts and agrees fairly well with this 

 Sparrman bird, but a note is added ^^ That in the Leveriau 

 Museum has the upper parts of a deep chestnut . . . the 

 underparts cinereous verging to chestnut on the breast.'^ 

 We consider this should be accepted as fixing the form, 

 and consequently Gmelin''s Rallus troglodytes becomes an 

 absolute synonym of Sparrman's Rallus australis. In 

 confirmation of this identification, we find Latham, iu his 

 Suppl. Gen. Synops. vol. i. 1787, p. 255, wrote: ''The 

 figure in the above work (Sparrman, Mus. Carlson, pi. 14, 

 Rallus australis) answers to my description of it (Troglodyte 



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