| 释义 |
notornis Ornith.|nəʊˈtɔːnɪs|
[mod.L. (R. Owen 1848, in Proc. Zool. Soc. 2), f. Gr. νότος south + ὄρνις bird.]
A flightless New Zealand bird of the genus so called, which includes the single species Notornis mantelli, belonging to the family Rallidæ, and distinguished by blue-green plumage and pink bill and legs; = moho1, takahe.
The bird was believed to be extinct until Dr. G. B. Orbell rediscovered it in a mountain valley near Lake Te Anau in November 1948.
1848Owen in Proc. Zool. Soc. 8 The Notornis is a large modified form of the same natural family of the Grallæ as the Porphyrio and Brachypteryx. 1850Mantell Ibid. 209 Notice of the discovery.., in the Middle Island of New Zealand, of a living specimen of the Notornis, a bird of the Rail family. 1870H. A. Nicholson Man. Zool. (1875) 527 The Notornis is much larger than the ordinary Coots, and..the wings are so rudimentary as to be useless for flight. 1882Trans. N.Z. Inst. XIV. 253 It has always been acknowledged that Notornis is a degenerate rail. 1930W. R. B. Oliver N.Z. Birds 350 Suspecting that it was a Notornis, Connor took it to the station where he carefully skinned it, preserving both the skin and the bones. 1950Discovery July 217/2 The news of the discovery of Notornis was announced on the following day—November 21 [1948]. 1962J. Frame Edge of Alphabet xii. 74 There's a valley of the notornis, the flightless bird. 1970Notornis XVII. 67 This encounter [with a Takahe] was approximately 12 km from the closed Notornis area. |