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 f^ .is said to 



common dunghill hen. Most of them are of a dirty black or dark brown colour" *. A descrip- 

 tion and figure of this species, under the name of Galliralhts fitsctis^ appeared {L c.) in 1847; 

 but, owing to a doubt as to its native habitat, it was not admitted into the accepted list of New- 

 Zealand birds. More recently, however, it was rediscovered by Dr. Hector, and described by myself 

 (L c.) under the name of Ocydromus nigricans. Dr. Finsch having, at my request, compared one 

 of my specimens with the type of Gallirallus fuscus (Du Bus), there can no longer be any doubt 

 about their identity. 



Dr. Hector informs me that he never met with this kind of Woodhen at any distance from 

 the sea-coast, and that it appears to subsist entirely on shell-fish and other marine productions. 



The following record, in Hammett's Journal of the West-Coast exploration in 1863, refers 

 apparently to the same bird : — " Thursday, August 20 [after being on the verge of starvation for 

 forty days]. Still raining in torrents ! My blankets and my clothes are saturated. All that I 

 can do is to stand in the pitiless rain, w^hich can make me no wetter, and watch the surf as it rolls 

 towards my feet. It is impossible to get a fire. I have caught two Woodhens ; for as God sent 

 the Eavens to feed Elijah, so these birds came to me, and my faithful dog caught them. I am 

 thus provided with food for a day or two ; but unless I can manage a fire to cook them, I must 

 even eat them raw. I live in hope that the weather will clear, as the wind has changed. My 

 faithful dog, how serviceable in many ways have you been to me ! " Thus poor Hammett records 

 his gratitude for the gift of Woodhens — the only inhabitants, besides rats, of this inhospitable 

 coast. The occasional capture of one of these birds sufficed to keep him from absolute starvation, 

 and through much suffering and privation Hammett survived to tell the melancholy fate of the 

 rest of his party. 



My brother, Mr. John BuUer, obtained a pair of these birds from a dealer in Dunedin in 

 1869; and they lived in my aviary for more than a year. In captivity their habits differ in no 

 respect from those of the species already described. I remarked, however, that one of them had 

 a practice of mounting to a particular spot on the ledge of the aviary almost every day, and 

 remaining in a perfectly motionless attitude for hours together. On one occasion a large brown 

 rat effected an entrance by undermining the aviary, and was killed and partly devoured by them; 

 and at another time a brown Woodhen {Ocydromus earli\ which I had introduced, met with a 

 similar fate. In fact, when deprived of its marine bill of fare, this species is quite as omnivorous 

 as the others. In connexion with this, the ' Canterbury Mail ' records the following case of 

 anthropophagism : — "A returned digger relates that he captured a Woodhen in the act of feeding 

 on the remains of a man, and being himself almost famished he quickly devoured the bird. To 

 use the words of a well-known banker in London, who is the gourmet ^ar excellence of the day, — 

 ' That man, Sir, would eat his own father; he has the stomach of an Ostrich.' " 



* Cook's Second Voyage, edit. 4to, i. p. 97. 



2a2 



