133 



The specimens therein referred to as having come from the south, without any locality 

 being assigned, must, I now feel assured, have come from the Snares. They reached me 

 through dealers, and it is almost impossible, in such cases, to obtain reliable particulars. 



Mr. Eeischek, who had collected examples of this bird on the Snares, informed me that 

 he found it inhabiting trees rather than swamp-vegetation and fern-beds, like the New 

 Zealand species. But it is evidently a ground feeder, for, on dissecting specimens- received 

 in the flesh, I was impressed by the marked development of the tibial and femoral 

 muscles. 



The following is a translation of Dr. Yon Lorenz's notes on this species ('Annal. 

 Hofm.,' vol. xvii., 1902) :— 



In addition to the specimen in Eeischek's collection, I had an opportunity of comparing five skins 

 from the Kothschild museum. The most striking differences in this species from B. fulva consist in 

 the indistinct striping of the upper parts, in the colouring of the tail, the feathers of which have* dark- 

 brown centres, along the shaft, not black ; in the darker colouring of the feet ; and, finally, in the size 



of the bill and feet, which are noticeably stronger Buller remarks that the muscular system 



regulating the feet is most strikingly developed, an observation in full accordance with what may be 

 inferred from the robustness of the legs and toes of the specimen now before me. 



Order PASSERIFORMES.l 



[Family TIMELIIDJE. 



BOWDLEE1A KIT FES C ENS. 



(CHATHAM-ISLAND FERN-BIRD.) 



Sphenceacus rufescens, Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. L, p. 62. 



The Hon. Walter Rothschild writes informing me that in the last collection of bird- 

 skins recently received by him from the Chatham Islands there was a good series of this 

 well-marked species. 



At a later date, however, Mr. W. Hawkins, the well-known Chatham Island collector, 

 wrote saying : " The Fern-Bird is extinct. I spent a fortnight on the island where they 

 used to be, but never saw any sign whatever of them." 



A collector also living on Pitt Island states that, partly through the firing of the low 

 vegetation, and partly through the introduction of cats, which have run wild, this interesting 

 species has become quite extinct. 



Since the publication of my work I have only succeeded in obtaining a single specimen, 

 and that I picked up at a dealer's shop in London. 



There is a very good figure of this species (by Keulemans) in my first edition of the 

 'Birds of New Zealand,' fronting page 128. 



There is in my son's possession a partial albino of this now extinct bird from the 

 Chatham Islands. 



