\ 



INTRODUCTION. 



I 



by Mr. Eichard Bills, and purchased by the Society on the 21st October, 1872. I am informed 

 by the late owner that it was captured on the shores of Lake Waihora, in the Province of 

 Otago, by a party of men who hunted it down with dogs. When first brought to him at 

 Dunedin it was very wild and shy ; but it soon became reconciled to confinement, and when he 

 exhibited the bird to me in London it was perfectly tame and would feed from the hand. 



Descr. $ . Crown and sides of the head^ nape^ hind neck^ back^ and rump brownish olive^ washed more 

 or less with chestnut ; wing-coverts greyish olive, shading into brown, each feather with a white streak down 

 the centre ; throat, fore neck, breast, and sides of the body dark ashy grey, passing into slaty black on the 

 abdomen and under tail-coverts, where the plumage is slightly tipped or freckled with grey; the overlapping 

 feathers on the flanks pure white in their apical portion, forming a conspicuous mark on each side of the body ; 

 under wing-coverts dull blackish brown, and all largely tipped with white ; quills blackish brown, the secon- 

 daries brownish olive on their outer webs ; tail-feathers black, the middle ones tinged with brown on their 

 outer margins. Irides bright crimson, with a paler rim surrounding the pupil ; bill greenish yellow, lighter 

 towards the tip ; legs and feet pale plumbeous tinged with yellow, the claws black. Total length 16*5 inches ; 

 extent of wings 25 ; wing, from flexure, 8 ; tail 4'5 ; bill, along the ridge 1*5, along the edge of lower mandible 

 1*4 j tarsus 2'75 ; middle toe and claw 3'25 ; hind toe and claw I'l*. 



Besides the three well-marked species of Ocydromus described at pp. 165-175, Dr. Finschf 

 recognizes a fourth ((9. troglodytes^ GmeL); but, although, as I have pointed out at page 171, the 

 South-Island Woodhen is subject to great variation both as to size and plumage, I am unable to 

 draw any specific line. It may be mentioned, however, that there is a very distinct species, 

 Ocydromus sylvestris (Sclater), inhabiting Lord Howe's Island, several live examples of which 

 have been brought to Europe. On the structural peculiarities of this singular Ralline form 

 Professor Newton has favoured me with the following notes : 



^^ One remarkable character in its osteology is that the angle which the coracoid makes with the scapula 

 is greater than a right angle; This I pointed out at a meeting of the Zoological Society, held 12th December, 

 1865, when I described, for the first time in public, a portion of the scapular arch in Bidus, in which the same 

 thing occurs, and stated that, so far as I then knew (and, for the matter of that, still know), this feature was 

 peculiar to these two genera alone among non-struthious birds. The remarks I made at this meeting were 

 never printed ; for, learning that Prof. Owen wished to describe those portions of the skeleton of Didus which 

 Mr. George Clark had discovered, I caused my paper to be suppressed. {Cf, Phil. Trans. 1869, p. 341, note.) 

 I cannot attempt to give any reason that would plausibly account for this singular deviation of structure from 

 the normal Carinate form in two birds so unlike as Ocydromus and Didus : there the matter is, and one must 

 leave it at present." 



Mr. A. H. Garrod has sent me the following interesting communication on the same 



subject: 



" In its osteology and visceral anatomy, as well as in its myology, Ocydromus agrees completely with the 



* To prevent any misapprehension of terms, I may here explain that in the formulary of measurements adopted in 

 this work, "length" always means from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail in the outstretched bird; "extent of 

 wings," the extreme span of the wings when spread; "wing from flexure," the length from the carpal joint to the end of 

 the longest quill; and " tail," the length from the root to the extremity of the longest feather. The measurements of the 

 hiU and claws indicate the curvature of those parts in every case, unless otherwise expressed, 



t Journal fur Ornithologie, 1872, p. 174. 



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