131
APHANAPTERYXFRAUENFELD.
Bill produced, not cut short, rather curved. The nostrils are exposed and situated at the base of the bill. Halluces of the naked fowl-like legs of moderate length. Front of legs apparently scutellated. Wings abortive, no rectrices apparent.
APHANAPTERYX BONASIASELYS.
(Plate 29.)
- A Hen Sir Thomas Herbert, A relation of some years' Travaile (1626).
- Velt-hoenders Reyer Cornelisz, Van der Hagen's voyage (1646).
- Poules rouges au bec de Becasse Cauche, Rélations véritables et curieuses de l'Isle de Madagascar (1651).
- Apterornis bonasia Edm. de Sélys-Longchamps, Revue Zoologique, p. 292 (1848).
- Didus herberti Schlegel, Vers. Med. Ak. Wetensch., II, p. 256 (1854).
- Didus broecki Schlegel, l.c.
- Aphanapteryx imperialis Frauenfeld, Neu aufgef. Abbild. Dronte, p. 6 (1868).
- Aphanapteryx broeckii Milne-Edwards, Ann. Sci. Nat. (5), X, pp. 325-346, pls. 15-18 (1868).
- Pezophaps broeckii Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Struthiones, p. 4 (1873).
I here give a translation of Frauenfeld's original diagnosis: "Of the size of a fowl, of a uniform brown red all over. Bill and legs dark. Iris yellowish. Feathers decomposed, as in the Apteryx, somewhat lengthened on the nape."
This description was made by Frauenfeld from a drawing by G. Hoefnagels, in the Imperial Library, Vienna, executed about the year 1610, and, together with that of the Dodo, apparently drawn from life in the Imperial Menagerie at Ebersdorf. This drawing proves Van den Broecke, Herbert, and Cauche's descriptions to have been correct, though their drawings are somewhat startlingly different in shape. Only known from these four drawings and osseous remains. 18 fragments of beaks, 5 pelves, 35 tibiae, 1 sacrum and fragments, and 1 vertebra in the Tring Museum.
Habitat: Mauritius.
