XXI 



Dr. BoTVDLER Sharpe announced that he had intended to 

 speak about the cLassification and distribution of the Rails, 

 butj owing to the lateness of the hour^ this communication 

 Avas postj)oned till the meeting in January. 



Mr. H. O. Forbes exhibited the osteological remains of 

 several of the species of birds he had discovered in the 

 Chatham Islands, lying 500 miles to the east of Banks Penin- 

 sula, New Zealand. He pointed out that the species he had 

 ('Nature/ xlvi. p. 252) assigned to the genus Aphanapteryx, 

 and named A. haivkinsi (after his correspondent who had 

 brought him the first fragments of its cranium), he was now 

 inclined to place in a new genus^ which he proposed (at the 

 suggestion of Prof. A. Newton, F.Pt.S.) to call Diaphorapteryx 

 (Si.a^opo? = difi'erent). Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi belonged to 

 the Ocydromine group of the Rallidse, and was nearly related 

 not only to Ocydromus itself_, but even more closel j to Apha7i- 

 apteryx of i\Iauritius. It appeared^ indeed, to be nearer to 

 Aplia7iapteryx than the latter genus was to Erythromachus of 

 Rodriguez. 



Erythromachus differed from Diaphorapteryx and Ajjhan- 

 apteryxm the greater length of its nasal aperture, which was 

 less than one third of the length of the beak vnDiaphorapteryx. 

 The latter also differed from both these genera and from 

 Ocydromus in the large protuberances on the basi-temporal 

 region of the skull ; and from Ocydromus in its widely sepa- 

 rated palatine bones, which^ as they did not meet posteriorly 

 in the middle line, disclosed the whole of the post- vomerine 

 parasphenoidal rostrum as seen from the palatal surface. It 

 had a strong, thick, short tarso-metatarsus^ shorter than the 

 metatarsus as figured by M. jNIilne-Edwards in his ' Oiseaux 

 Fossiles de France. "" The beak was highly arched — as in 

 Apjhanaptery X and Erytliromachus, and was longer than the 

 tarso-metatarsu s . 



- Palcsocorax moriorum. — This species of the Corvidee, 

 established on the wing- and limb-bones, had been originally 

 placed in the genus Corvus {cf. ' Nature/ xlvi. p. 252), as 

 these bones presented no characters distinguishing them from 



