Aphanapteryx and Other Remains in the Chatham Islands

Abstract

IN a former letter I sent you some account of the finding of the Aphanapteryx in the Chatham Islands. I have now gone more carefully over the bones I collected there, and some additional notes may not be without interest. I find that, of the heads I have obtained, a number are much larger than that of Aphanapteryx broeckei (Schlegel), and are therefore rightly assigned, I think, to a distinct species. The tarso-metatarsus, as figured by M. Milne-Edwards, however, may, I think, prove to belong not to Aphanapteryx,or at any rate not to a species with so robust a tibia. I found several tarso-metatarsi in near relation to the tibias and femora, and heads of A. hawkinsi, and they are all without exception much shorter and stouter bones in proportion to the tibiæ and femora. Out of the same strata which contained Aphanapteryx, I obtained a number of the bones of the skeleton of a Fulica very nearly related to F. newtoni. Like the Aphanapteryx bones, they vary very much in size, some being equal, others much larger than those of F.newtoni. So much so that I am inclined to recognize them as different species, or at least different races. The larger species I have named F. chathamensis. The portions I have had before me are the pelvis, the femur, the tibia, and metatarsus. I have portions of a large ralline skull, which may be that of this Fulica, but it is rather too imperfect to enable me to speak more confidently at present. The tarso-metatarsi of this bird agree much more closely with the tarso-metatarsus assigned in M. Milne-Edwards's plate to Aphanapteryx. Of the Aphanapteryx I possess the complete cranium, femur, tibia, metatarsus, humerus, and pelvis. Among the other interesting specimens so far identified, are the humeri and pelvis of a species of Crow half as large again as C. comix. They agree closely with those of a true Corvus. I have designated it as Corvus moriorum, as I found some of these bones among the remains scattered round a very ancient Moriori cooking-place, which had become uncovered by the wind in the strata in which Aphanapteryx occurs. Indeed, in this kitchen-midden I gathered portions of the Aphanapteryx, of a large swan, of several species of ducks, and of a Carpophaga indistinguishable from the species now living on the islands —aspecies(Carpophaga chathamicava mihi1) new to science. I may say that it is easily distinguished from C. novœ-zealandiœ by the breast-shield in both sexes being altogether duller than, and not extending so far ventrally as, in the latter. The head, neck, and breast are of the same colour—a dull green, with purple and green metallic reflections when viewed with the bird between the light and the eye. It is, however, most markedly distinguished by the pale lavender colour of the external border of the wings, the much paler colour of the lower back and rump, and by the black on the under surface of the tail feathers being prominent on all the rectrices except on the anterior portions of the outer tail feather on each side, and passing under the tail coverts in a broad wedge. Mr. Travers relates that he was informed by one of the early settlers on Pitt Island that he remembered the first appearance of the pigeon in the islands. This statement cannot well be accepted in face of the presence of the bird's bones in a midden so ancient as that I have referred to above. In the Aphanapteryx beds, I obtained also the portions of a skull of a species of Columbidæ, apparently of a Columba, of which I can say little till I am in possession of more material. I have obtained also bones of the small hawk (Harpa), showing that it existed on the islands, whereas it is now unknown there, although Circus gouldi is not uncommon.