122 
In answer to my inquiries, a Chatham-Island correspondent, Kirihipu Eoiri Te Eangipuahoaho, 
wrote as follows in August 1863 : — “ Na, ko to kupu mo te manu. I ngaro tera manu, to Moeriki, i 
te toru o nga tau i noho ai nga Maori ki tenei moutere. Mehemea kei te ora taua manu, maku e 
hopu atu mau. He manu pai taua manu. I kite au imua i taku tamarikitanga. Ta nga Maori 
ingoa o taua manu he Popotai.” [Translatio^J. — Now with regard to the bird. This bird, the 
Moeriki, disappeared in the third year after the occupation of this island by the Maoris. If the bird 
still survives I will catch you some. It was a beautiful bird. I remember seeing it when I was a 
boy. The Maoris called it a Popotai.] But my friend Eoiri, although he had the stimulus of a 
handsome reward, never succeeded in finding the Moeriki ; and we may therefore conclude that it is 
extremely rare, if not quite extinct, on the main island. 
In this very interesting form the plumage bears a strong family likeness, in the style and distri- 
bution of the markings, to that of the well-known Eallus pMlijipensis ; but, as will be seen from the 
figures given below, its bill is more Ocydromine in its character. 
It has been conclusively shown that the skeleton of the Eail described by Hutton under the name 
of Cahalus modesfus (regarded in my former edition as the young of Eallus dieffenbachii) differs widely 
from that of Eallus, especially in the character of the sternum ; and as we find here the same modi- 
fication in the bill, I think the proper course will be to place Dieffenbach’s Eail in Hutton’s new 
genus, as indeed Mr, Sharpe has already done in his Sup[)lement to the Birds of the ‘ Voy. Ereb. and 
Terr.’ (p. 29). It ought, however, to be remembered that Mr. G. E. Gray had long before proposed 
to refer this form to the genus Ocydromus. 
Of the last-named group I liave treated fully in my accounts of the five species inhabiting New 
Zealand. 
Another allied species, Ocydromus sylvestris (Sclater), is confined to Lord Howe’s Island, a small 
insular district whose zoological relation to New Zealand has already been discussed in my 
Introduction. 
It is very curious that at the Chatham Islands, lying, as it were, between these points, a gene- 
rically different Ocydromine form should present itself. The New-Caledonia Eail [Eulaheornis 
lafresnayanus), although aberrant, comes even nearer to our Ocydromus *. d’he bill is more attenuated, 
and the tail (in all the specimens I have examined) is very inconspicuous, but the general characters 
are very similar, and the legs and feet are the same, although somewhat more slender. 
* In general appearance it is not unlike Ocydromus fuscus in plumage, Imt it baa a much larger bill, which is slightly 
curved as in 0. sylvestris from Lord Howe’s Island. Layard writes (Ibis, 1882, p. 535) “ This queer Hail is, though generally 
distrihnted, a rare bird in ^ ew Caledonia, It appears to inhabit much the same localities as the Ivagou, and is, in fact, a 
oodhen, like the tV eka, and not a swamp-bird, e have kept it in confinement, feeding it on Bulimi, raw meat, and garbage. 
It is nocturnal, and runs with great rapidity. In walking it elevates the tail with the peculiar flip common to the Rails, and it 
can climb and jump like a cat. If alarmed it wiU squeeze itself into the smallest holes and crevices and lie ‘perdue’ and 
motionless, feigning death for a long time.” 
