Part 43 (2/2)

E. Ma.s.sach. p. 138 (1870--Martha's Vineyard and Naushon Island); Brewster, Auk 1885, p. 82 (Ma.s.sachusetts).

_Cupidonia cupido var. cupido_ Baird, Brewer & Ridgway, N. Amer. B.

III, p. 440 (1874).

_Cupidonia cupido brewsteri_ Coues, Key N.A.B., App. p. 884 (1887).

_Tympanuchus cupido_ Ridgway, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. VIII, p. 355 (1885); Bendire, Life-Hist. N. Amer. B. I, p. 93 (1892); Grant, Cat. B. Brit.

B. XXII, p. 77; Check-List N. Amer. B. Ed. II, p. 115, No. 306 (1895); Hartlaub, Abh. Naturw. Ver. Bremen XIV, 1 (second ed. of separate copy, p. 15) (1896).

Linnaeus' brief diagnosis is: ”Tetrao pedibus hirsutis alis succenturiatis cervicalibus.” After the habitat he adds: ”Color Tetricis feminae; vertex subcristatus; a tergo colli duae parvae alae: singulae pennis quinque.”

This diagnosis is taken from Catesby, who gives a fairly good description and a recognizable coloured plate. He specially mentions that the neck-tufts are composed of five feathers, and in his figure they are shown to be much pointed. Catesby expressly states that he does not know exactly from which part of America his specimen came--yet Linnaeus says ”Habitat in Virginia.”

Formerly the Heath Hen inhabited New England and part of the Middle States (Southern Connecticut, Long Island, New Jersey, Nantucket, Eastern Pennsylvania), but in 1887 Ridgway stated already that it was then apparently extinct, except on Martha's Vineyard. About that time it was still common on that island, inhabiting the woods and chiefly haunting oak scrub and feeding on acorns. They were then ”strictly protected by law,”

but this protection seems not to have been effectual, as from 1893 to 1897 a number were killed, skinned, and sold to various museums. This was, perhaps, fortunate rather than unfortunate, because Mr. Hoyle (the man who collected them) told us that in 1894 a fire destroyed many of them, and in the fall of 1897 they were practically gone. But almost worse than this, perhaps, two pairs of ”Prairie Chicken” (_Tympanuchus america.n.u.s_) were liberated and broods of young (of the latter apparently) were seen, so that it {182} is to be feared that birds shot now on Martha's Vineyards Island may have blood of _T. america.n.u.s_ in them, the two forms being closely related, somewhat difficult to distinguish, and evidently sub-species of each other. Nevertheless, a bird taken in 1901 was p.r.o.nounced to be typical _cupido_ by Mr. Brewster.

From these facts it is pretty clear that the Heath Hen is among the birds the fate of which is sealed, and which, if not already exterminated or mixed with foreign blood, will soon have disappeared. The footnote in the Proceedings of the IV. International Ornithological Congress, p. 203, is herewith corrected.

{183}

COTURNIX NOVAEZELANDIAE QUOY & GAIM.

(PLATE 28, FIG. 2.)

_Coturnix Novae-Zelandiae_ Quoy and Gaimard, Voy. Astrolabe, Zool. I.

p. 242, pl. 24, fig. 1 (1830--”Il habit la baie Chouraki (riviere Tamise de Cook), a la Nouvelle-Zelande”); Gould, Syn. B. Austr., text and pl. fig 2 (1837-38); Buller, B. New Zealand, p. 161, pl. (1873); Hist. B. New Zealand, 2nd ed. I, p. 225, pl. XXIII (1888); Grant, Cat.

B. Brit. Mus. XXII p. 245 (1893).

This Quail, though a typical _Coturnix_, is easily distinguished from all other species. The male has the upper-side almost black, each feather bordered and indistinctly barred with rufous-brown, and with a wide, creamy white shaft-line. The throat and sides of the head are rufous-cinnamon, the feathers of the chest and breast at their basal half buff with a broken black cross-bar, the distal half black, with two pale buff spots near the tip, or with a continuous white border.

This sole representative of the ”gamebirds” in New Zealand was in former days very numerous in both islands, but especially so in the South Island, wherever there was open gra.s.s-land, but is now evidently extinct. Its disappearance is apparently not due to excessive shooting, but rather to the introduction of rats, cats, and dogs, and last, but not least, to bush-fires and to the regular burning of the sheep-runs, according to Sir Walter Buller. No doubt the establishment itself of extensive sheep-farms in the once, more or less, uninhabited gra.s.s-land was ominous for the future of the Quail.

It is not quite clear when the Quail disappeared. The last on the North Island was shot by Captain Mair at Whangarei in 1860. Specimens were recorded in 1867 and 1869, but were apparently not procured. In Haast's ”Journal of Exploration in the Nelson Province” it is said to be still very abundant in 1861 on the gra.s.sy plains of the interior.

Sir Walter Buller mentions two specimens said to be from an island in Blue Skin Bay, shot in ”1867 or 1868.” In his Second Edition of the Birds of New Zealand he informs us that it was found occasionally in the South Island down to 1875, but in the ”Supplement” he speaks of a specimen said to have been shot in 1871, but adds, ”There is no absolute evidence of it,” and ”if true, this individual bird must have been about the last of its race.”

Therefore, evidently the note about 1875 was erroneous. {184}

The statement of Mr. Cheeseman, that he took eggs on Three Kings Islands is erroneous. The eggs belonged to a _Synoecus_, and the egg given to Sir Walter Buller is now in my collection.

I have, however, also two eggs of _Coturnix novaezealandiae_, brought home by Dr. H. O. Forbes. They have a brownish-white sh.e.l.l, covered and washed all over with deep brown patches and lighter brown underlying markings.

They show distinctly the character of Quails' eggs, but, besides being much larger, are easily distinguished from eggs of _Coturnix coturnix_. They measure 34.3 by 25 and 34.5 by 21.3 mm.

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