224 Transactions — Zoology. 



Length, 8-75 in. ; wing, 3-15 ; bill from gape, 1'4; tarsus, 1 ; middle toe 

 and claw, 1'4. 



Yonng covered with, brownish black down. 



This curious bird was found on Mangare only ; it will, doubtless, form the 

 type of a new genus, as no other rail has a curved bill. 



Halodroma berardii, Quoy. 



Pelecanoides herardii, Q. and G., " Voy. de I'Uran.," ZooL, pi. 31. PL col. 517. 



This species is distinguished from H. urinatrix by its narrow bill, which is 

 only -17 inches in breadth at the end of the nasal tubes, while in H. urinatrix 

 it is -25 in. 



Phalacrocorax carunculatus, Gml. 



Graculus cirrhatus, Gray. " Yoy. Ereb. and Terr.," Birds, p. 19. 



Several specimens were obtained. Legs and feet flesh coloured. 

 Length, 27-5 in. ; wing, 10-5 ; bill, 3-25 ; tarsus, 2. 



As soon as the breeding season is over they lose the dark blue-black on 

 the back, and get instead brown with a broad white transverse band. 



Phalacrocorax africanus, Gml. ? 

 Graculus africanus? Hutton, *' Ibis," July, 1872. 



Head, neck, throat, lower part of the back, thighs, vent, and over the tail, 

 dark blue- or green-black ; upper back and wing-coverts greenish bronzy 

 brown, each feather with a black apex ; breast and a;bdomen grey ; quills and 

 tail brownish black ; head crested ; neck ornamented with white feathers in 

 the breeding season ; bill dark coloured ; legs and feet yellowish orange. 



Length 19 in. ; wing, 9-5; bill, 2*75 ; tarsus 2. 



In the " Ibis " for last July I referred this beautiful species to G. africanus 

 with some dotibt, as the only descriptions available, those of Linnseus, Cuvier, 

 and Layard, in his " Birds of South Africa," were very short and disagreed 

 among themselves, but still seemed to indicate a bird very like ours. By the 

 last mail, however, I heard from Dr. Finsch that Dr. Buller has sent him a 

 specimen for examination, and that he (Dr. Finsch) considered it as a new 

 species ; it is certainly distinct from G. longicaudus, Swainson (" B. of Africa," 

 II., p. 253) which Mr. Gray considered the same as G. africanus. It is also 

 found in New Zealand, for I have seen fragments in a lady's hat of a specimen 

 that was shot at the Wade near Auckland. 



