On Extinct and Vanishing Birds. 199 



Bucerotidae, which must, from their descriptions, have been 

 near the species of Hydrocorax still existing. 



We must now pass to the group of islands in the Pacific, 

 consisting of New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, etc., 

 which will, I am sad to say, furnish us with many examples 

 for this essay. 



First, taking the outlying islands : on Norfolk and Philip 

 Islands the fine Parrot, Nestor productus, has quite vanished, as 

 well as the great flightless white Rail, Notornis alba, and the 

 fine green-and- white fruit Pigeon, Hemi/phaga sjoadicea. Of 

 the Parrot, some 30 specimens exist in museums, among 

 which there may he mentioned 3 in the British Museum, 1 in 

 Liverpool, 2 in the provinces, 1 in Florence, 1, the type, 

 in Philadelphia, 1 in Washington, 1 in Tring. Of the 

 Notornis, we only know one solitary specimen, in the Vienna 

 Museum, from the Leverian collection. Of the Pigeon, 

 there are about a dozen known : 1 at Tring-, 1 in the British 

 Museum, 3 at Liverpool, 1 in Paris, 1 in Frankfort, 1 at 

 Naples, 1 in Philadelphia, 1 in Wiesbaden, and, perhaps, 2 or 

 3 others. The cause of extinction of these three fine birds 

 is not far to seek, when we remember that for more than 

 sixty years their home was the station for the more refractory 

 and desperate convicts transported from England. On the 

 Chatham Islands the two flightless Rails, Cabalus modestus 

 and Nesolimnas dießenbachi, have been quite wiped out by 

 the cats, rats, and weasels introduced by the settlers ; then 

 the little brown-and- white Fern bird, Bowdleria rufescens, and 

 the so-called black Tit or black Robin, Miro traversi, have 

 fallen victims to man and his satellites. 



Then the New Zealand Quail, Coturnix novaezealandiae, 

 has become absolutely extinct through the combined actions 

 of man, bush fires, and vermin. On the North Island there 

 existed up to a few years ago a species of Laughing Owl, 

 Sceloglaux, called by Sir Walter Buller Sceloglaux rufifacies, 

 but the only known specimen is a young bird of which 

 the tail and hind-neck are artificially made up from two 

 other species of Owl, so that I, for one, would never have 

 described it. 



FromKangaroo Island the Black Emu,_Drow«ews ater, hasbeen 

 hunted down out of existence, and only 4 specimens remain, 



