Part 32 (1/2)

OCYDROMUS INSIGNIS FORBES.

_Ocydromus insignis_ Forbes, Trans. N.Z. Inst. XXIV, p. 188 (1892--insufficient description).

This bird ”far exceeded in size any of the existing species of _Ocydromus_.” That is all that is published about this bird.

Habitat: Middle Island, New Zealand.

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APHANAPTERYX FRAUENFELD.

Bill produced, not cut short, rather curved. The nostrils are exposed and situated at the base of the bill. Halluces of the naked fowl-like legs of moderate length. Front of legs apparently scutellated. Wings abortive, no rectrices apparent.

APHANAPTERYX BONASIA SELYS.

(PLATE 29.)

_A Hen_ Sir Thomas Herbert, A relation of some years' Travaile (1626).

_Velt-hoenders_ Reyer Cornelisz, Van der Hagen's voyage (1646).

_Poules rouges au bec de Beca.s.se_ Cauche, Relations veritables et curieuses de l'Isle de Madagascar (1651).

_Apterornis bonasia_ Edm. de Selys-Longchamps, Revue Zoologique, p. 292 (1848).

_Didus herberti_ Schlegel, Vers. Med. Ak. Wetensch., II, p. 256 (1854).

_Didus broecki_ Schlegel, l.c.

_Aphanapteryx imperialis_ Frauenfeld, Neu aufgef. Abbild. Dronte, p. 6 (1868).

_Aphanapteryx broeckii_ Milne-Edwards, Ann. Sci. Nat. (5), X, pp.

325-346, pls. 15-18 (1868).

_Pezophaps broeckii_ Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Struthiones, p. 4 (1873).

I here give a translation of Frauenfeld's original diagnosis: ”Of the size of a fowl, of a uniform brown red all over. Bill and legs dark. Iris yellowish. Feathers decomposed, as in the _Apteryx_, somewhat lengthened on the nape.”

This description was made by Frauenfeld from a drawing by G. Hoefnagels, in the Imperial Library, Vienna, executed about the year 1610, and, together with that of the Dodo, apparently drawn from life in the Imperial Menagerie at Ebersdorf. This drawing proves Van den Broecke, Herbert, and Cauche's descriptions to have been correct, though their drawings are somewhat startlingly different in shape. Only known from these four drawings and osseous remains. 18 fragments of beaks, 5 pelves, 35 tibiae, 1 sacrum and fragments, and 1 vertebra in the Tring Museum.

Habitat: Mauritius.

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DIAPHORAPTERYX FORBES.