

PENNULA ECAUDATA. 



MOHO. 



Rallus ecaudatus, James King, Voy. Pacif. Ocean, iii. p. 119 (1784) ; S. B. Wilson, hujus operis, 



pt. i. art. Acrulocercus nobilis, p. 2, note (December, 1890). 

 "Dusky Rail," Latham, Synops. iii. p. 237 (1785). 

 Rallus obscurus, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 718 (1788) ■ Latham, Ind. Orn. p. 759 (1790) ; 



Donndorff, Orn. Beitr. i. p. 1151 (1794) ; A. Newton, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1889, p. 5. 

 Rallus obscurus et R. acaudatus, Tiedemann, Anat. und Naturgesch. Vog. ii. p. 434 (1814). 

 Corethrura obscura, G. B,. Gray, Gen. B. iii. p. 5 (1846). 

 Porzana obscura, Hartlaub, Arch. f. Naturgesch. 1852, pt. i. p. 137 ; id. Journ. fur Orn. 1854, 



p. 170. 

 Ortygometra obscura, G. R. Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Isl. p. 53 (1859). 

 Ortygometra^ sandwichensis (partim), id. torn. cit. p. 52 (1859). 

 " Wingless bird . . . which the natives call f Moho/ " Pease (fide J. E. Gray), Proc. Zool. Soc. 



1862, p. 145 (cf. Sclater, Ibis, 1880, p. 241). 

 Ortygometra obscura, Dole, Proc. Boston Soc. N. H.xii. p. 302 (1869) ; id. Hawaiian Alman. 1879, 



p. 53. 

 Pennula millsi (errore typogr. " millei "), Dole, Hawaiian Alman. 1879, p. 54 ; (reprint) Ibis, 1880, 



p. 241 ; A. Newton, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1889, p. 5. 

 Pennula ecaudata, Hartlaub, Abhandl. naturwissensch. Vereins Bremen, xii. p. 396 (1892). 

 Pennula sandwichensis, Sharpe, Bull. Br. Orn. Club, no. iv. p. xx (21 Dec. 1892) (nee Rallus sand- 



vichensis, Gmel.j cf. Hartlaub, op. cit. no. v. p. xxiv ; Sharpe, op. cit. no. viii. p. xlii). 



I think there can be no doubt that the species of which a figure is here for the first 

 time published is that mentioned by Captain James King 1 (loc. cit.) among the birds 

 met with on Cook's expedition, to the command of which he ultimately succeeded, as 

 a "a rail, with very short wings and no tail, which on that account we named rallus 

 ecaudatus" It seems to be just as certain that this species is also the " Dusky Rail " 

 of Latham (ut supra), described by him from a specimen in the Leverian Museum, the 

 fate of which I have been unable to trace. On this last was founded, as shown by the 

 synonymy above given, the Ballus obscurus of Gmelin, while the B. ecaudatus of King 

 was wrongly referred by Mr. G. E. Gray to the " Sandwich Rail " of Latham (Synops. 

 iii. p. 236), a wholly different bird. Since the disappearance of Latham's type of the 

 former, it is probable that no example of it had been seen in Europe until the specimen 

 here figured was brought home by me in 1888. This was exhibited at a meeting of 



1 Of course not to he confounded with the Captain Philip Parker King, who some fifty years later surveyed 

 the coasts of Australia and South America. 



