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102 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO PALEOBIOLOGY
FIGURE 14.—Sterna of Mergus spp. (right lateral views). Top to bottom: Mergus, species undescribed (MNZ
S30049, PRM sample #113/91), from Te Ana a Moe Cave, Te Whanga Lagoon, Chatham Island; Mergus australis
(BMNH 1904.8.4.3, male); Mergus serrator (MNZ 12707, female). (Scale bar=30 mm.)
The Australasian Bittern {Botaurus poiciloptilus) may have
suffered the same fate, although there is some doubt whether
this species was ever really established in the Chathams. The
New Zealand Falcon {Falco novaeseelandiae), from its subfossil
record formerly abundant and reportedly seen as late as
the 1890s, may have been vulnerable to rats and cats, particularly
when nesting.
The elimination of these eight species during the historic pe­
riod (34% of the 23 species that had survived through the
Polynesian period) meant that since first human contact just
over 400 years before, at least 58% of the Chatham Islands'
original complement of land birds and waterfowl had become
extinct. As a more positive adjunct to this sad record, it should
be noted that without enlightened human intervention several
more species, notably the Black Robin {Petroica traversi), the
New Zealand Shore Plover {Thinornis novaeseelandiae), and