THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 189

REPORT ON APTERYX IN NEW
ZEALAND.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Auckland, May 22nd, 1862.
THE following Report on Apteryx in New
Zealand by Dr. Sclater, Secretary to the
Geological Society, is published for general
information.
WILLIAM FOX.

OCTOBER, 1861.
Report on the present State of our Know-
ledge of the Species of Apteryx living in
New Zealand. By Philip Lutley Sclater,
M.A., Ph. D., F.R.S., and Dr. F. von
Hochstetter.
[Read at the Meeting of the British Association,
September, 1861.]

THERE appears to be evidence of the present
existence of at least four species of birds of
the genus Apteryx in New Zealand, concern-
ing which we beg to offer the following re-
marks, taking them one after the other in the
order that they have become successively
known.

1.-APTERYX AUSTRALIS.
Apteryx Australis, Shaw, Nat. Misc. xxiv.
pl. 1057, 1058, and Gen. Zool. xiii. p. 71.
Apteryx Australis, Bartlett, Proc. Zool. Soc.
1850, p. 275.
Apteryx Australis, Yarrell, Trans. Zool. Soc.
I. p. 71, pl. 10.

The Apteryx Australis was originally
made known to science about the year 1813,
from an example obtained in New Zealand by
Captain Barclay of the ship "Providence."
This bird, which was deposited in the collec-
tion of the late Lord Derby, was afterwards
described at greater length in 1833, in the
Transactions of the Zoological Society by Mr.
Yarrell, and was still, at that date, the only
specimen of this singular form known to ex-
ist. Examples of Apteryges subsequently
obtained, though generally referred to the
present species, have mostly belonged to the
closely allied Apteryx Mantelli of Bartlett,
as we shall presently show, though specimens
of the true Apteryx Australis exist in the
British Museum, and in several other collec-
tions.

The original bird described by Dr. Shaw is
stated by Mr. Bartlett (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850,
p. 276) to have come from Dusky Bay, in the
Province of Otago, Middle Island, whence
Dr. Mantell's specimen, upon which Mr.
Bartlett grounded his observations as to the
distinctness of this species from Apteryx
Mantelli, was also procured.

Dr. Hochstetter was able to learn nothing
of the existence of this Apteryx in the Pro-
vince of Nelson, in the same island. In fact,
the species is so closely allied to the Apteryx
Mantelli as to render it very desirable that
further examples of it should be obtained,
and a rigid comparison instituted between the
two. For the present, however, we must
regard this form of Apteryx as belonging to
the Southern portion of the Middle Island,

2.-APTERYX OWENII.
Apteryx Owenii, Gould, P.Z.S. 1847, p. 94.
Apteryx Owenii, Birds of Austr., vi. pl. 3.
Owen's Apteryx, which is readily distin-
guished from the preceding species and A. Man-
telli, by its smaller size, transversely barred
plumage and slender bill, was first described
by Mr. Gould in 1847, from an example pro-
cured by Mr F. Strarge, and "believed to
have been obtained from the South Island."
Since that period other specimens have been
received in this country, which have sufficed
to establish the species, and from the infor-
mation obtained by Dr. von Hochstetter, there
is no doubt of this being the common Apteryx
of the Northern portion of the Middle Island.

"In the spurs of the Southern Alps on
Cook's Strait, in the Province of Nelson,"
says Dr. von Hochstetter, "that is, in the high er
wooded mountain-valleys of the Wairau chain,
as also Westwards of Blind-Ray, in the
wooded mountains between the Motueka and
Aorere valleys, Kiwis of this species are still
found in great numbers. During my stay in
the Province of Nelson I had myself two
living examples (male and female) of this
species. They were procured by some natives
whom I sent out for this purpose, in the
upper wooded valleys of the river Slate, a
confluent of the Aorere, in a country elevated
from 2000 to 3000 feet above the sea level.
It appears that this Apteryx still lives very
numerously and widely spread in the extended
southern continuations of the Alps."

3.-APTERYX MANTELLI.
Apteryx Australis, Gould, Birds of Aus-
tralia, xi. pl. 2.
Apteryx Mantelli, Bartlett, Proc. Zool. Soc.
1847, p. 93.

The characters which distinguish this com-
moner and better known Apteryx from the
true A. Australis of Shaw were pointed out
by Mr. Bartlett at the meeting of the Zoolo-
gical Society, held on the 10th December,
1850 :- "This bird differs from the original
Apteryx Australis of Dr. Shaw," says Mr.
Bartlett, "in its smaller size, its darker and
more rufous colour, its longer tarsus, which is
scutellated in front, its shorter toes and claws,
which are horn-coloured; its smaller wings,
which have much stronger and thicker quills;
and also in having long straggling hairs on
the face."

Mr. Bartlett tells us that, as far as he has
been able to ascertain, all specimens of Apte-
ryx Mantelli are from the Northern Island,
and this is completely confirmed by Dr. von
Hochstetter's observations, which are as fol-
lows:---

"In the Northern districts of the Northern
Island this species of Apteryx appears to
have become quite extinct. But in the island