(ESTRELATA ROSTRATA. 



speak with certainty. Both the nestlings in the British Museum have white under- 

 parts, and the bill is somewhat stout. 



According to Messrs. Layard, the bird breeds on the small rocky islands, and they 

 also believe that it nests in the mountains of the interior. Several nestlings, in 

 various stages of plumage, were received by them from a small island off " Ueu," which 

 is separated from the main island by the celebrated Wodin Passage, and forms the 

 southernmost end of New Caledonia (Ibis, 1882, p. 538). 



Layard further mentions that he obtained from Pere Montrouzier nine young birds 

 in the downy stage, which he describes as being white below and grey above, where 

 the feathers were beginning to show. Bill, legs, and feet black, the webs 

 between the toes, buff. These nestlings were sent on April 11th, 1877, and on 

 September 20th the same correspondent forwarded an older bird, with the primaries 

 just showing. This latter was sooty-grey, including the throat and chest, the rest of 

 the under-parts white. Bill black, the tip of the lower mandible white ; feet and legs 

 pale flesh-colour, with a black patch commencing half-way up the outside edge of the 

 tarsus and extending downwards, over the joint, to the centre and exterior toes as far 

 as the first joint, then across the whole foot, including the web (Ibis, 1882, p. 539). 



Wiglesworth has included the islands of Aneiteum in the New Hebrides among 

 the habitats of this species, on the authority of Macgillivray (cf. Abhandl. Mus. 

 Dresden, 1890-91, No. 6, p. 82). He quotes a reference to Macgillivray' s paper in the 

 " Zoologist " for 1860 (p. 7133), but, on referring to it, I cannot find any mention of 

 (E. rostrata. 



On the island of Tahiti these birds were found by Peale breeding in holes, at an 

 elevation of some 6,000 feet, during the month of October. They were nocturnal in 

 their habits, and but few were seen abroad during daylight ; about sunset they sallied 

 forth, and went out to sea in search of food for their young, the food being rarely found 

 near the coast. 



The egg, according to the Messrs. Layard, is naturally white, but is frequently 

 more or less stained with the yellow clay of the hole in which it is laid. Axis, 2.0 inches ; 

 diam., 1.6 [Ibis, 1882, p. 539). 



Peale's description is as follows : — " Head, neck, back, wings, and tail, sepia-brown, 

 lightest on the throat and breast ; lower part of the breast, belly, and vent, white ; 

 wings darker than the back ; quills sooty ; tail cuneate ; upper tail-coverts brown, 

 lower coverts white, tipped with pale brown ; bill deeply furrowed, very strong and 

 black ; irides brown ; feet pale flesh-colour beneath, and on the inner side, but margined 

 with black ; toes and connecting membrane black, excepting a small flesh-coloured spot 

 at the base of the inner membrane. Total length, 16 inches." 



Salvin's description of the species is copied from that of Professor Coues. His 

 diagnosis in the " Catalogue of Birds " is as follows : — " Quill-lining dark ; under- 

 3urface white ; crown and upper tail-coverts dark, like the back ; under wing-coverts 



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