Okder EALLIFOEMES.] 



[Family RALLIDvE. 



OCYDROMUS BRACHYPTERUS. 



(BLACK WOOD-HEN.) 



Ocydromus fuscus, Du Bus; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, yoI. ii., p. 112. 



Dr. Shaepe reports that he has examined the type specimen of Gallirallus brachypterus from the 

 Caen Museum, for the loan of which he was indebted to Professor Joyeux-Laffine, the Director of 

 that Museum. Dr. Sharpe points out that the species has been the subject of much controversial 

 opinion, but that it is evidently the same as Gallirallus fuscus of Du Bus, which must therefore 

 be known as Ocydromus brachypterus (Bull, B.O.G., January, 1873). In other words he has 

 demonstrated, from an examination of the type, that Mr. G. K. Gray was perfectly right in his 

 identification of this bird in 1862 (Ibis, vol. iv., p. 238) and that all the rest of us have been 

 wrong. 



The following appears to be the history of the confusion that has arisen over this name. In 

 1868, believing the Black Wood-hen to be a new bird, I described it, in New Zealand, under the 

 name of Ocydromus nigricans, on specimens obtained by Dr. (now Sir James) Hector, on the 

 south-west coast of the Otago province.* Dr. Finsch afterwards identified my bird with 

 Gallirallus fuscus (Du Bus), which, he stated, Mr. Gray had confounded with G. bracliypterus, 

 (Lafresnaye). Assuming that Dr. Finsch had examined this type, I did not hesitate to follow him, 

 in my first edition of 'The Birds of New Zealand,' and Captain Hutton did the same in 

 his ' Notes on the New Zealand Wood-hens ' (1874). t But in a subsequent article, Dr. Finsch 

 wrote : " I did not compare the type of Du Bus, as Dr. Buller seems to think, but only 

 the figures which, in many respects, differ from the descriptions."]: Later on he wrote : " Ocy- 

 dromus bracliypterus — said to come from the Chatham Islands, but without evidence — is the same 

 as 0. hectori (Hutton)." § Dr. Sharpe, in his 'Appendix to the Birds' of the 'Voyage of the 

 Erebus and Terror ' (1875), adopted Dr. Finsch's identification of Ocydromus fuscus, and (fol- 

 lowing Hutton) admitted also 0. troglodytes, 0. hectori, and 0. finsclii. 



Professor Newton writes in his 'Dictionary of Birds ' (p. 1031) : " This specific term (fuscus) 

 has generally been preferred, in the belief that the Ballus troglodytes was identical with the 

 B. australis, figured and described in 1784 by Sparrman (Mus. Carlson, i., No. 14) ; but the 

 two birds appear to be distinct, both in coloration (though this in each is variable) and habit — the 

 former frequenting the sea-shore (whence one of its names — Kelp-hen) and feeding chiefly on shell- 

 fish and other marine products, while that which is commonly identified with the latter, 

 ranges widely through the interior of the South Island of New Zealand — examples from the 

 western side of the Alps being, however, apparently distinguishable by wanting the barred 

 flanks, and in that respect resembling another form which inhabits the North Island and is, 

 according to Sir W. Buller, who named it 0. greyi, peculiar thereto. That these three or 

 four forms should be justly considered good species is very probable ; but that more species 

 should exist in New Zealand seems unlikely. It was for some time called 0. earli, the 

 name under which Dr. Sharpe (Cat. B. Br. Mus., p. 66) still has it, but Sir Walter states 

 that the type of that form (Ibis, 1862, p. 238) agrees with some specimens from the South 

 Island, and he recognises it as a distinct species. He also admits an Ocydromus bracliypterus, 

 which is certainly not that of Lafresnaye and, if distinct, should probably be called 0. hectori." 



* Trails. N. Z. Inst., vol. i., p. Ill (1st. edition). 

 % Op. cit., vol. vii., p. 231. 



f Op. cit., vol. vi., p. 111. 

 § Op. cit,, vol. viii., p. 202. 



