(PLATE 3, FIG. 4.)
_Coccothraustes ferreorostris_ (_sic_) Vigors, Zool. Journ. IV p. 354
(1828); id. in Beechey's Voy. Blossom, p. 22, pl. 8 (1839).
_Fringilla papa_ Kittlitz, Mém. Acad. Imp. Sc. Petersbourg I p. 239,
pl. 15 (1830); id. Kupfertaf. Vög. p. 24, pl. 32, 2 (1832).
_Chaunoproctus papa_ Bonaparte, Consp. I p. 526 (1850); Bp. and
Schlegel, Monogr. Loxiens p. 32 pls. 37, 38 (1850).
_Chaunoproctus ferreirostris_ Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XII p. 31
(1888).
Vigors' original description, translated from the Latin, is as follows:
"Dark brown; head, breast and upper part of abdomen scarlet. Bill very
strong, feet plumbeous. Length of body 8½, bill 7/8, at gape 1-3/16, height
7/8; wings from the carpus to the third quill 4½; tail 3, tarsus 7/8
inches."
In the "Catalogue of Birds," XII, p. 31, both sexes are carefully
described.
It appears that only one pair, now in the British Museum, was obtained
during Captain Beechey's voyage. Curiously enough, Vigors suggested that
the brilliantly coloured adult male might be the young, the female the
adult bird, "as is the case in the Pine-Grosbeak" (_Sic!_).
Kittlitz, who visited the largest of the Bonin Islands in May, 1828,
obtained a number of specimens, of which some are in St. Petersburg, two in
Frankfurt-a.-M., one or two in Leyden, and, I believe, in Paris. {10} These
seem to be all the specimens known in European museums. Mr. Seebohm's
collector, the late Holst, failed to obtain it, and Mr. Alan Owston's men,
who several times went to the Bonin group to obtain it, and who were
promised good prices for specimens, did not get one. I am therefore
convinced that for some unknown reason this bird became extinct, though
there is still the possibility that the recent collectors did not collect
on the main island of the group, which alone was visited by Kittlitz.
Kittlitz tells us that he found it in the woods along the coast, but not
numerous. That it keeps concealed, is very phlegmatic, and is so little shy
that one is obliged to go back for some distance, before shooting, if one
wishes to preserve the specimen. Kittlitz saw it but seldom on high trees,
mostly on the ground. Its frequently heard note is a very fine piping
sound. In the crop and stomach small fruit and buds of one kind of tree
were found.
Habitat: The largest of the Bonin Islands, south of Japan.
{11}