Order PASSERIFORMES.] 



[Family TIMELIIDJE. 



BOWDLERIA CAUDA T A. 



(SNARES FERN-BIRD.) 



Sphenceacus caudatus, Buller, Trans. New Zealand Institute, vol. xxvii., p. 128. (1895.) 



In a collection of birds made for me by Mr. H. H. Travers, on a visit of the Government 

 steamboat 'Hinemoa' to the various groups of islands adjacent to New Zealand, there 

 were a good many specimens of a Fern-bird or "Utick," obtained by him on the Snares, a 

 group of islets lying about seventy miles south of the southernmost extremity of New 

 Zealand. I had hitherto referred this island-form to Mr. G. E. Gray's Sphenoeacus fulvus. 

 But the opportunity of examining so good a series (both of males and females) led me to 

 investigate the subject further, and I was then satisfied that the species inhabiting the 

 Snares is distinct. 



Mr. G. R. Gray's description of Sphenoeacus fulvus appeared in his very useful 'List 

 of the Birds of New Zealand and the Adjacent Islands,' which came out in the 'Ibis' for 

 1862. 



To commence with, his bird was from New Zealand ; and, although no locality is 

 given, it cannot have come from the Snares, inasmuch as there was no communication 

 with those small islands at that time. 



According to his description, Sphenceacus fulvus, although of "a rather larger size" than 

 Sphenceacus punctatus, has a smaller bill and shorter tail. This is not the case with the 

 bird from the Snares, which is altogether appreciably larger, the bill being more robust and 

 the tail so conspicuously different that I have named the species from that feature; that is 

 to say, instead of its being composed of Emu-like feathers with disunited barbs, the webs 

 are closely set and compact, not differing in any way from the typical tail-feathers of the 

 extensive family to which this genus belongs. Mr. Gray says of his bird that "the black 

 streaks and dots are less pronounced than in Sphenceacus punctatus," which is not true of 

 the present bird; and he adds that "the abdomen is white, more or less minutely dotted 

 with black," a description which is equally inapplicable to this species. In Mr. Gray's bird 

 the white superciliary streak is more pronounced than in Sphenoeacus punctatus, in this 

 species it is less so. 



I thus distinguished the new form : — 



BOWDLERIA CAUDATA, sp. nOV. 



3" act. similis S. punctato, sed paullo major ; ubique lsetius fulvescens, plumis vix ita 

 distincte medialiter lineatis; pectore etiam minus distincte maculato; remigibus rectricibusque 

 ochracescenti-fulvis ; cauda minus acuminata, scapis plumarum haud nudis, sed omnino 

 plumiferis. Long, alse 2*75 poll., cauda3 3*5, rostri "5, tarsi '85. 

 $ mari similis. 



Sab. Inss. Snares, maris Novi-Zelandici. 



The species appears to be intermediate between Bowdleria punctata of New Zealand 

 and my Bowdleria rufescens, of the Chatham Islands ; and its occurrence on the Snares 

 is the more interesting as another inhabitant of these islets is the Chatham Island Eobin 

 (Miro tr aver si, Buller), which has never yet been found in New Zealand. 



This is the Sphenoeacus fulvus of my 'Birds in New Zealand' (2nd ed., vol. ii., p. 01). 



