Lord Howe Island — PARAMONOV 
77 
is absent from Australia. Hindwood (1938) re- 
garded it as an extinct bird. 
The Lord Howe Island starling, Aplonis fus- 
cus hullianus Gould, is similar in size to the 
ouzel. It is blackish brown in colour, glossed 
with bottle green, the underparts being olive 
grey. Its nearest relative is a subspecies existing 
on Norfolk Island. It belongs to the genus with 
a wide distribution throughout the islands of 
the western Pacific. Hindwood ( 1938) regarded 
it as an extinct species. 
Concerning the robust silver-eye, Nesozos- 
terops strenua Gould, Hindwood (1938) wrote: 
"Until recently there existed on the island a big 
silver-eye, about half as large again as the grey- 
backed species at present living on Lord Howe 
Island. Birds similar to the now extinct robust 
silver-eye occur on Norfolk Island (2 species) 
and in the Solomons ( 1 species ) .” The author 
considers that the extinction of robust silver-eye 
needs to be confirmed. 
The Lord Howe Island flyeater, Gerygone in- 
sularis Ramsay, is also called the "rain-bird” 
because it was active after rain, or the "pop- 
goes-the-weasel” on account of the supposed re- 
semblance of its song to that air. It is the smallest 
of the birds on the island, and belongs to a 
group with a wide distribution in Australia, 
New Guinea, the Pacific islands, and New Zea- 
land. Hindwood (1938) regarded this species 
as extinct. 
The author is not quite sure that the data of 
Hindwood are correct. In 1955 and 1956, when 
the author visited the island, he saw Gerygone 
insularis as a rather common bird, although this 
species was regarded by Hindwood as extinct. 
It seems that some species were rare in 1938, 
but were not entirely exterminated. In 1955-56 
the author found very good conditions for life 
of the birds: there were no wild cats, no wild 
dogs, very few rats; if from time to time some 
specimens of these animals destroy birds, the 
number of victims is probably very small. Again, 
man is not now interested in destroying birds. 
The evidence is that on the first day of arrival 
the author’s assistant caught a ground pigeon 
by hand (after examination it was liberated); 
the author himself made attempts to catch this 
bird with an entomological net in the courtyard 
of the Guest House. If this bird is so fearless, 
lying on its side on the ground, it is quite evi- 
dent that conditions on the island are now such 
as to account for this. 
Of the Lord Howe Island fantail, Rhipidura 
flabellifera cervina Ramsay, Hindwood (1938) 
wrote: "This bird was an insular form of the 
well-known grey fantail of Eastern Australia. It 
was exceedingly tame and would often enter 
dwellings and capture flies.” 
Introduced Birds 
According to Hindwood (1938), "the grey- 
breasted silver-eye, Zoster ops lateralis (Latham), 
was in danger of being exterminated, but a 
number of birds of the Australian race, and the 
Norfolk Island form as well, were introduced in 
1924 and 1925, with the result that it appears 
to be increasing.” 
The author saw some silver-eyes during his 
visit to the island in 1955. The future naturalist 
must consider the fact that some birds were in- 
troduced. According to Hindwood, "certain in- 
troduced birds such as the Californian quail and 
the land rail have also been exterminated by the 
rats.” 
Another passage of Hindwood is interesting: 
"In an effort to check the increase of the rats 
almost one hundred owls of several kinds were 
sent to the island between 1922 and 1930.” 
However, only Ninox boobooc Latham, which 
existed before the invasion of the rats, is now 
living on the island. 
The number of rats destroyed is very in- 
teresting: in the year 1927, 13,771; in 1928, 
21,214; in 1929, 10,175; in 1930, 17,803. These 
figures must represent but a small proportion of 
the total rat population, so it is difficult to 
understand how the whole bird population of 
the island was not totally destroyed, for rats can 
climb the trees and very easily destroy eggs and 
nestlings. Probably the high mountain areas 
served as sanctuaries for the birds. Now ( 1955- 
56) the rats are common only around dwellings 
of humans. During the five weeks the author was 
on the island he saw very few rats in the bush 
either on day or night trips. 
According to M. Nicholls (1953) "the land 
rails liberated on the island about 1880 were 
supposed to have succumbed to the rats, but in 
February 1944, several were observed in a drain 
