Page:Rothschild Extinct Birds.djvu/123

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

89



PLOTUS NANUSNEWT. & GAD.

Plotus nanus Newton and Gadow, Trans. Zool. Soc. XIII p. 288, pl. XXXIV figs 1-5. (1893).

The humerus, the pelvis with sacrum, and the tibia were the materials on which our authors founded this new species. They state that all the strongly developed characters in these bones leave no possible doubt as to its being a species of Plotus, and its diminutive size at once distinguishes it from the three known species—P. anhinga, P. melanogaster, and P. novaehollandiae.

The measurements are as follows:—

Left humerus, length 89 mm.
Left tibia, length 61  "

Distance from acetabular axis to anterior end of sacrum 30 mm.

Distance between ventral inner margins of the acetabula 14.5 mm.

Habitat: Mauritius. (Also recorded from Madagascar.)