Art. XXVII.—On the Occurrence of Plotus novæ-hollandiæ in New Zealand.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 7, 1874, Page 217

Art. XXVII.—On the Occurrence of Plotus novæ-hollandiæ in New Zealand. By Walter L. Buller, D.Sc., F.L.S., etc. [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 15th October, 1874.] The Canterbury Museum contains a roughly prepared skin of the Australian Darter (Plotus novœ-hollandiœ) obtained under circumstances which leave no doubt on my mind of the occurrence of this bird as a straggler in New Zealand. Mr. F. R. Fuller, the excellent taxidermist attached to the Museum, during a visit to Hokitika in January last, found the skin stretched flat and nailed up inside an old shed. He brought it away, but could get no information as to how it came there. An examination of the skin shows clearly that it was in a fresh state when affixed to the wall, the edges having, in the process of drying, shrunk away from the nails on both sides. It would seem that some digger or working settler, probably attracted by the rarity of the bird, had adopted this rude mode of preserving it. At any rate the skinning operation appears to have been performed by unskilful hands, an open slit having been made from the hind part of the head right down the back to the root of the tail. The suggestion will occur that the bird may have come down from Australia in some vessel; but the condition of the tail-feathers, which to the very tips are clean and unbroken, proves, I think, that this was no caged bird. Those who have kept birds of this class in captivity know how soon the tail-feathers in particular get soiled and abraded. The almost entire absence of fat on the inner surface of the skin would seem to indicate that the bird had performed a long journey on the wing; although this may be other-wise accounted for on the supposition of its being a female in breeding condition. The plumage of this specimen, of which a description is given below, allows of its being either an adult female or a young bird of the first year, at which stage the sexes are alike. I may here mention that Dr. Haast, during his exploration of the Southern Alps in the summer of 1862, met with a bird in the Ohau Lake, swimming very low in the water, which he was unable at the time to identify, and that he is now convinced it was a Plotus. The habitat of Plotus novœ-hollandiœ, according to Gould, is confined to the colonies of South Australia and New South Wales, where it is thinly but generally dispersed in all situations suitable to its habits, such as the upper parts of armlets of the sea, the rivers of the interior, extensive water-holes, and deep lagoons. The male differs from the female in having the breast and neck black with an arrow-head mark of white on the throat, and a

broad stripe of the same from the base of the mandibles on each side of the upper neck; also in having rusty red stains on the under side of the throat. Description of Hokitika Specimen. Crown, nape, hind part of neck and shoulders blackish-brown, mottled with white, each feather being narrowly edged with it; the whole of the back and rump black; quills and tail-feathers black, the inner webs of the former tinged with purplish brown, and the three innermost secondaries with a broad longitudinal stripe of white on their outer vane; bastard quills and the superior primary coverts black, the inner ones slightly tipped with white; the larger secondary coverts are white on their outer webs and beyond the shaft, then black with a sharply defined edge; the smaller coverts white in their central portion, with a black lanceolate stripe on each web and narrowly margined with white; towards the edge of the wing the feathers are black with a central arrow-head spot of white, becoming entirely greyish white at the carpal flexure; scapulars black with a broad stripe of dull white on their outer webs; the coverts white in their central portion with black shafts, a broad stripe of black on each web with a narrow outer margin of white; throat, foreneck and all the under parts buffy white; under surface of the wings and tail black. A broad line of black extends from the posterior edge of the eyes down the side of the neck, separating the dark brown of the hind neck from the white plumage of the under surface. The middle tail-feathers and the innermost scapulars on the outer webs have a peculiar crimped surface. Bill yellowish horn colour, brownish towards the base of the upper mandible; the inner cutting edges of both mandibles armed with minute sharp barbs inclined backwards. Feet dull yellow, shaded with brown; claws yellowish brown. Extreme length (approximately) 40 inches Wing from flexure 14 " Tail (consisting of eight feathers) 10 " Culmen 3.15 " Bill, along edge of lower mandible 4.25 " Tarsus 2 " Longest toe and claw 3.8 " Hind toe and claw 1.5 "