Dr. Sharpe's description, made from the type in the Leyden Museum, is as follows: "Adult. General colour of upper surface blackish brown; the lower back and rump ferruginous; centre tail-feathers blackish, the rest rufous, banded with black, less distinctly on the two next the middle pair; wing-coverts blackish, with a white spot near the carpal bend of the wing, formed by some of the lesser coverts; crown of head blackish, the hind-neck browner, mixed with black; sides of face brown, the lores and ear-coverts slightly more reddish, behind the eye a little white spot; cheeks and under surface of body ferruginous red, the throat buffy white. Length 6.7 inches, culmen 0.9, wing 4.45, tail 2.15, tarsus 1.3 (Mus. Lugd.)"
We know nothing of this bird, but the one specimen in the Leyden Museum, which is the type, or at least one of the types. As no other specimens have been obtained for nearly a century and a quarter, there is every reason to fear that this bird is extinct. My plate has been made up by Mr. Lodge from the unpublished drawings of Ellis and Forster in the British Museum.
Habitat: Tahiti, and the adjacent islet of Eimeo.
AECHMORHYNCHUS COUES.
This genus appears to be closely allied to Prosobonia, but has a much shorter hind toe. Its colouration is very different, and quite that of a Sandpiper, while the pattern of Prosobonia is most singular. Seebohm placed Aechmorhynchus, together with Prosobonia, in the genus Phegornis.
We know only one species.
AECHMORHYNCHUS CANCELLATA (GM.)
(Plate [35].)
Barred Phalarope Latham, Gen. Syn. III. pt. 1, p. 274 (1785—Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean).
Tringa cancellata Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, p. 675 (1788—ex Latham).
Tringa parvirostris Peale, U.S. Expl. Exp., Birds p. 235, pl. LXVI, 2 (1848—Paumotu) Cassin, U.S. Expl. Exp. p. 321, pl. 38, 2 (1858—Paumotu).
Totanus (Tryngites?) cancellatus Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Islands Pac. Ocean, p. 51 (1859).
Phegornis cancellatus Seebohm, Geogr. Distrib. Charadr. p. 451, pl. 17 (1888).
Aechmorhynchus cancellatus Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. XXIV, p. 525 (1896).