(PLATE 34.)
_Notornis Hochstetteri_ A. B. Meyer, Abbild. Vogelskelett, Lief. IV &
V, p. 28, pl. XXXIV-XXXVII (1883--South Island, New Zealand);
Zeitschr. ges. Orn. II, p. 45, pl. I (1885--figures of the bird).
_Notornis mantelli_ (non Owen 1848!) Gould, P.Z.S. London, 1850, pl.
21; Trans. Zool. Soc. London IV, pl. 25 (1850); Gould, B. Austr.
Suppl., pl. 76 (1869); Buller, B. New Zealand, pl. (1873); Sharpe,
Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXIII, p. 208 (1894).
The name _Notornis mantelli_ having been based on a cranium and some
leg-bones from the North Island, and the bones of a specimen from the South
Island, showing marked differences, Dr. A. B. Meyer was fully justified in
describing the latter form as different, under the name of _N.
hochstetteri_.
According to the describer there are considerable differences in the
cranial bones, but the comparison of the leg-bones shows such differences
in size that these alone would be sufficient to separate the North and
South Island forms. The femur of _N. hochstetteri_ measures 109, that of
_N. mantelli_ 122, the tibia of the former 165, the tarso-metatarsus 109,
the tibia of the latter 200, the tarso-metatarsus 129 mm. For further
measurements see A. B. Meyer, Abbild. Vogelskelett I, p. 30.
The upper surface is olive-green with some slaty-blue shading, the quills
are black with purplish blue outer webs; rectrices blackish, green on the
outer webs. Head, neck, and under surface purplish blue, thighs more
blackish. Under tail-coverts white, frontal plate and bill bright red,
yellow towards the tip of both mandibles. Feet red.
Although this bird is evidently not extinct, a specimen having been
captured as late as 1898, it seems that not many examples live at present
in New Zealand, as they have been sought after a good deal, and yet only
four have been taken so far, _i.e._, the two in the British Museum, one in
the Dresden Museum, and the last-mentioned one.
Full accounts of the capture of this last specimen have been given in the
Trans. New Zealand Institute, XXXI, pp. 146-150, and in Sir Walter Buller's
Supplement to the Birds of New Zealand, I, pp. 66-74, where, however, the
year of the capture is not mentioned, though one can guess that it must
have taken place shortly before the articles on it appeared.
Habitat: Middle Island, usually called South Island, apparently nearly
extinct. {143}