76 
New Zealand origin of the species from Lord 
Howe Island, because on the mainland this fear- 
less bird, which is also a poor flier, can be very 
easily destroyed. Only a few decades of the 
presence of man on the island was enough to 
cause the complete extinction of this bird. On 
the mainland it would have been practically 
helpless, therefore we cannot reject the idea that 
this genus was not also represented in the past 
on the mainland. 
The presence on the island of a bird which is 
a poor flier suggests a continental origin of the 
species. 
2. The Lord Howe Island pigeon, Janthoenas 
godmanae ( Mathews ) : 
This bird was larger than a domestic pigeon, 
its head and breast were of a purple-mauve tint, 
its throat was white, and the mantle or back of 
the neck was green, the rest of the body being 
brown. The Lord Howe Island pigeon was once 
so numerous and tame that, with the aid of a 
stick and string, the islanders could snare 20 
birds from a flock without the others taking 
alarm. Surgeon Bowes and others, in 1788, 
merely knocked them over with sticks. Today 
there is not a skin in any museum in the world, 
and only two paintings are known, one dated 
1790 and signed by George Raper, and the other, 
unsigned, in the Alexander Turnbull Library, 
Wellington, New Zealand. Several related spe- 
cies occur in New Caledonia, New Guinea, 
Timor, and other places. The species appears to 
have been exterminated about 1850. 
3. The Lord Howe Island parrakeet, Cyanor- 
hamphus novaezeelandiae subflavescens (Salva- 
dori ) : 
In size it was somewhat smaller than a Rosella 
parrot, and was mostly bright green in colour, 
with patches of red on the forehead, sides of 
neck, and rump, and blue on the wings. A single 
pair was seen flying through the forest in 1869 
(Hill: 1870). The species existed until about 
1870, by which time it had been exterminated 
because of the damage it did to the crops of the 
settlers. 
Birds very closely related to the Lord Howe 
Island parrakeet still exist on Norfolk Island, 
New Caledonia, New Zealand, and some asso- 
ciated islands. 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XIV, January I960 
The Present Land Birds 
Very rare, curious, and stupid is the so-called 
wood hen, Ocydromus ( Nesolimnas ) sylvestris 
Sclat. Its plumage is of a brown colour tinged 
with green, which harmonises well with the 
dark-brown earth and the green foliage of the 
palm scrub in which it wanders about, turning 
over leaves and pebbles with its long grey bill, 
in search of food. The wood hen’s wings are so 
small that it cannot fly but its strong legs have 
enabled it to ascend, for example, even the 
steep faces of Mount Lidgbird. 
The bird deserves full protection because its 
curiosity is very strong, and to attract it and 
catch it one only needs to pick up pebbles and 
to tap them upon a tree trunk or a rock. Mc- 
Culloch, 1921, writes: ". . . we saw the birds 
hastening towards us. Espying us within thirty 
yards or so, they advanced more cautiously, but, 
if we remained still, approached sufficiently close 
to be snared with a palm-leaf noose. I tethered 
one by the leg to a stone in order to take its 
photograph, and its efforts to escape attracted 
the attention of another which endeavoured to 
assist the captive by grasping its neck with its 
own long bill and pulling with all its strength.” 
These birds are now to be found only on the 
upper parts of the two mountains and in such 
inaccessible places as the Big and Little Slopes 
beneath the southern cliffs of Mount Gower. 
The only protection for this bird is its isolated 
habitat. 
It is now the most remarkable animal of the 
island, and the duty of the islanders is to protect 
it by all means. First of all it is necessary to pro- 
claim its absolute protection, only photography 
being permitted to visitors, and to impose a 
heavy penalty for breach of the proclamation. 
The ouzel or doctor bird, T Urdus xanthropus 
vinitinctus Gould, is another rarity. The gen- 
eral colour of this bird, which is thick set and 
some 9 inches in length, is a dark reddish brown. 
The vinous-tinted ouzel belongs to a large group 
of birds which includes the missel thrush, song 
thrush, and blackbird of England (the last one 
is introduced in Australia and New Zealand). 
Its nearest relative is a form living in New 
Caledonia. The genus is represented by species 
on most of the islands of the western Pacific, but 
