128 



throat dark grey, each feather slightly tipped with brown. Quills soft brown, 

 the first three faintly barred with reddish fulvous, fourth and fifth the 

 longest. Tail very soft and short, brown. Irides light brown, bill and legs 

 light brown. Length 875 inches, wing 3-15, bill from gape 1-4, tarsus 1, 

 middle toe and claw 1*4. 



Young. Uniform brownish black. 



A single specimen and young from Mangare ; also a specimen in spirits." 



The author knew perfectly well what he was doing when he described 

 this excellent species. Sir Walter Buller afterwards (B. New Zealand, Ed. I, 

 pp. 179, 180) declared " after carefully comparing it with the type of Rallus 

 dieffenbachii, and submitting the matter to the judgment of other competent 

 ornithologists, I have no hesitation in considering it the same species, in an 

 immature state of plumage." (Sic!) Unfortunately, Dr. Sharpe, in the 

 Catalogue of Birds XXIII, repeated Buller's error, and, on Plate VI, figured 

 Cabalus modestus under the name of Cabalus dieffenbachii, though the latter 

 is not congeneric with C. modestus, and must be called Nesolimnas dieffenbachii, 

 while the third form included in Cabalus by Dr. Sharpe, viz. sylvestris of Lord 

 Howe's Island, must also be separated generically from Cabalus. 



Formerly Cabalus modestus inhabited Great Chatham Island, as 

 Dr. Forbes proved by bones found by himself at Warekauri, but when the species 

 was discovered it existed there no more, though being plentiful on the little 

 outlying island of Mangare. Unfortunately even there it is evidently extinct 

 now, this island being overrun with cats and rats, besides which, according to 

 Buller, the original vegetation has been ruthlessly burnt down for the purpose 

 of sowing grass-seed, as even this bleak little island has been claimed by an 

 enterprising sheep-farmer. Fortunately a good many specimens have been 

 secured by the late W. Hawkins. I have fifteen in my museum, and there are 

 specimens in the British Museum, in Liverpool, and one in Cambridge. 

 Henry Palmer failed to get specimens when he visited Mangare. 



I have also the egg described and figured in the Ibis by Dr. Forbes. 

 It measures 40 by 21*4 mm., and is creamy white, with faint pale reddish 

 and purplish roundish spots. 



Habitat : Chatham Islands, east of New Zealand. 



