Order RALLIFORMES.] 



[Family RALLID.E. 



HYPOT^NIDIA MUELLERI. 



(AUCKLAND-ISLAND RAIL.) 



Rallus muelleri, Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, No. viii., pi. xl. (April, 1893.) 

 Rallus brachypus (nee Swains.), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, ii., p. 100. 

 Hypotsenidia muelleri, Sharpe, Handl. B., i., p. 96. 



A well-pee served example of this presumably extinct Kail is in the Stuttgardt Museum, and 

 has been thus characterised by Mr. Walter Rothschild : — 



" Adult. — Upper surface of head, occiput, and neck brownish-red, faintly and irregularly 

 striated with black ; back and rump bright chestnut, with the centres of the feathers black ; 

 wings brownish-black, faintly edged with rufous-grey ; cheeks reddish-grey ; centre of the throat 

 reddish-white ; lower part of throat and breast rufous-grey ; flanks, abdomen, and under tail- 

 coverts black, each feather tipped with pale rufous, and with two white bands ; tail rufous, 

 with indistinct grey bands. Wing 3'3 in., culmen 1*1 in., tarsus I'l in., central toe with claw 

 1'3 in, tail 1'3 in." 



The specimen was sent for description by Count von Berlepsch, and it was named in honour 

 of the famous botanist, the late Baron von Mueller, K.C.M.Gr, of Melbourne, from whom the 

 Museum received it. 



Dr. Sharpe says of it, in the ' Catalogue of Birds, B. M.' (vol. xxiii., p. 330) : — " It is an 

 island-form of H. brachypus, with the wing-coverts elongated and the feathers of the lower back 

 and rump much puffed out, as in the flightless Weka Rails (Ocyclromus and Eulabeornis) . Its 

 tawny colour distinguishes it at once from H. br achy pus." 



In 1875, Baron A. von Hiigel recorded, under the name of Rallus brachypus (Ibis, 1875, 

 p. 392) a Rail from the Auckland Islands, killed in that locality by the unfortunate Captain 

 Musgrave, of the ' Grafton.' There is no doubt in my mind that this is the same species as the 

 one mentioned above. Baron von Hiigel says : "On comparing the Auckland with the 

 Australian bird I found them to agree very closely, though the colouring seemed different." He 

 adds that " it is the first Rail known to have been procured in the group." 



In Mr. Rothschild's opinion, however, this bird most resembles Rallus lewini of Australia, 

 the chief distinguishing feature being the " enormous development " of the feathers on the back 

 and rump. 



