(PLATE 27.)
_Rallus Dieffenbachii_ Gray, Dieffenb., Trav. N.Z. II App. p. 197
(1843).
_Ocydromus dieffenbachi_ Gray, Voy. Ereb. and Terr., Birds p. 14, pl.
15 (1846).
_Hypotaenidia dieffenbachi_ Bonaparte, C. R. XLIII, p. 599 (1856).
_Cabalus dieffenbachi_ Sharpe, Voy. Ereb. and Terr., Birds p. 29, pl.
15 (1875), id., Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXIII p. 47 (1894).
_Nesolimnas dieffenbachi_ Andrews, Novit. Zool. III. p. 266, pl. X,
figs 3-15 (1896).
Adult: "General colour above, brown, banded on the mantle and scapulars,
and spotted on the upper back with ochreous buff, these buff markings being
margined with black, which takes the form of broad bars on the mantle;
lower back and rump uniform brown; upper tail coverts brown, barred across
with light rufous and black; lesser wing coverts like the back; median and
greater coverts, as well as the primary coverts and quills, light chestnut,
barred with black, the inner secondaries spotted and barred with ochre and
black, like the back; tail feathers brown, mottled with chestnut near the
base; crown of the head and nape uniform brown, followed by an indistinct
patch of chestnut on the hindneck; lores dull rufous, surmounted by a broad
line of bluish grey, extending from the base of the nostrils to the sides
of the nape; rest of the sides of the face bluish grey, extending on to the
lower throat; this grey area of the face separated from the grey eyebrow by
a broad band of dark chestnut, which extends from the lores through the eye
along the upper part of the ear-coverts; chin and upper throat white; lower
throat black, barred across with white; fore neck and chest ochreous buff,
banded rather narrowly with black, this pattern of colouration {126}
extending up the sides of the neck to the chestnut on the ear coverts;
lower breast and abdomen black, banded with white, the light bars on the
flanks and vent feathers being tinged with ochreous; under-tail coverts
broadly banded with black and ochre; under-wing coverts and axillaries
blackish, barred with white; under surface of quills chestnut, with broad
black bars.
Wing 4.8 inches, culmen 1.35, tail 2.7" (Sharpe).
Habitat: Chatham Islands.
The type and only known specimen is that in the British Museum.
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