15
MIRO TRAVERSIBULLER.
(Plate 5, Fig. 1.)
- Miro traversi Buller, B. New Zealand, Ed. I p. 123 (1873—Chatham Islands).
- Petroeca traversi Hutton, Ibis 1872, p. 245.
- Myiomoira traversi Finsch, Journ.-f.-Orn. 1874, p. 189.
- Miro traversi Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. IV p. 236 (1879).
- Miro traversi (partim) Buller, Suppl. B. N. Zealand II p. 125? pl. XII (October, 1906).
The late Sir Walter Buller described, in 1873, Miro traversi as follows: "Adult male. The whole of the plumage black, the base of the feathers dark plumbeous; wing-feathers and their coverts tinged with brown, the former greyish on their inner surface; tail-feathers black, very slightly tinged with brown. Irides dark brown; bill black; tarsi and toes blackish brown, the soles of the feet dull yellow. Total length 6 inches; wing, from flexure, 3.4; tail 2.6; bill 0.5, tarsus 1.1; middle toe and claw 0.1, hind toe and claw 0.8 inch."
"Female. Slightly smaller than the male, and without the brown tinge on the wings and tail."
It may be added that Miro traversi is not pure black, but of a somewhat brownish slaty black.
Miro traversi is only known from the Chatham Islands, where it was formerly very common, but, according to a letter from the late W. Hawkins, the cats, which have been introduced to destroy rats and rabbits, have exterminated it. It seems to have disappeared from Warekauri, the main island of the Chatham group, long ago, for H. O. Forbes (Ibis 1893, p. 524) and Henry Palmer found it, in 1890 and 1892, only on the outlying islets of Mangare and Little Mangare.
The bird from the Snares is quite different, being deep glossy black and having a shorter and narrower first primary. I named it M. dannefaerdi. It is to be feared that a similar fate will one day befall it as has, apparently, already befallen its congener from the Chatham Islands.
Sir Walter Buller (Suppl. B.N.Z. II, p. 125) has confounded M. traversi and dannefaerdi, and the figure he gave on his plate looks so black, that I do not doubt it represents rather the latter than the former. Of course M. dannefaerdi alone occurs on the Snares, and Buller's traversi from the Snares were all dannefaerdi. Dr. Finsch's statement (Ibis 1888, p. 308) that Reischek's specimen from the Snares "agreed in every respect with specimens from the Chatham Islands" is entirely wrong, for, even if
