The Notornis of Lord Howe's Island

Abstract

THE last number of the Ibis (July 1873, pl. x.) contains a representation of a very interesting bird, about which, though discovered and described in the last century, naturalists have for a long time been doubting. This is the species said to be first metioned by Callam in 1783 (Voy. Bot. Bay), and subsequently figured in the works of John White (Journ. Voy. New South Wales, p. 238, App.) and Governor Phillip (Voy. Bot. Bay, p. 273, pl.), and designated by Latham (Ind. Orn. ii. p. 768) Gallinula alba. No specimens are known to have been brought to Europe for upwards of eighty years, and only two are believed to exist in museums—one in that of Liverpool, which was figured by White, and the other in Vienna, now for the first time portrayed. The species is most likely extinct in Norfolk Island, but a passage in a pamphlet by Mr. Edward Hill, published at Sydney in 1870, seems to show that it may still exist in that of Lord Howe—though, if so, doubtless on the verge of extermination through the pigs, with which the island is said to be overrun, for the bird is believed to be unable to fly. Should any examples be still living, it would certainly be better that their remains should be placed in our museums, than that they should contribute to the formation of pork; and I write these lines that they may attract the attention of some Australian readers of NATURE, who may be disposed to do a good turn to the University of Cambridge.