516 Proceedings. 



gesticn of Dr. Finsch, he names as A. bulleri what was heretofore known 

 as A. mantdli. It is interesting to examine the literature of the subject 

 now in the possession of this Society, to see whether ]\Ir. Sharpe's asser- 

 tion that the North Island kiwi has no name is founded on fact, and I will 

 proceed to give you some extracts from papers which have from time to 

 time been published in the " Transactions " and by the Geological Survey 

 Department :— 1868, "Transactions," vol. ii., p. 67: Mr. T. H. Potts 

 writes, " No. 63, A. viantelli, Kiwi. This is usually known as the kiwi of 

 the North Island." 1871, "Transactions," vol. iii., p. 52: Sir Walter 

 Buller wrote, — 



" On the 10th December, 1850, a series of specimens was exhibited 

 before the Zoological Society of London, when Mr. Bartlett pointed out 

 characters which, as he contended, established the existence of two 

 species hitherto confounded under tlie specific name of Ai^teryx australis 

 (' Proc. Zool. Soc.,' 18.50, p. 276). Mr. Bartlett stated, at this meeting, 

 that, an Apteryx belonging to the late Dr. Mantell having been placed in 

 his hands by that gentleman, he had remarked its dissimilarity to ordi- 

 nary examples, and that after a careful comparison with a number of 

 other specimens he had come to the conclusion that it was a new species. 

 On comparing Dr. Mantell's bird, however, with the original specimen in 

 the Earl of Derby's collection, he found that they were identical. He 

 accordingly referred his supposed new species to Ai). australis, and 

 distinguished the more common bird as Ap. mantelli — ' a humble effort,' 

 as he says, ' to commemorate the exertions of Walter Mantell, Esq., to 

 whom we are indebted for so many valuable discoveries in the natural 

 history of New Zealand.' The characters which distinguish it from 

 Shaw's Ap. australis are — ' 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 stated, further, that the Aptcryx belonging to Dr. 

 INIantell was collected by his son in Dusky Bay, whence the original 

 bird, figured and described by Dr. Shaw, was also obtained, and that, so 

 far as he had been able to ascertain, all the known specimens of Ap. 

 mantelli were from the North Island. 



" In a ' Report on the Present State of our Knowledge of the Species 

 of Apteryx ' by Drs. Sclater and Hochstetter, read at a meeting of the 

 British Association in September, 1861, and published for general infor- 

 mation in the Nciv Zealand Gazette in May, 1862, the following observa- 

 tion occurs respecting Ap. australis : ' In fact, the species is so closely 

 allied to the Ap>. viantelli as to render it very desirable that further 

 examples of it should be obtained, and a rigid examination instituted 

 between the two. For the present, however, we must regard this form of 

 Apteryx as belonging to the southern portion of the INIiddle Island.' 



" Mr. Gould, in the Appendix to his ' Handbook to the Birds of 

 Australia,' p. 568, retains the original name for this species, but remarks, 

 ' If Mr. Bartlett's view be correct, it is probable that the bird figured by 

 me is the one he has named A}), viantelli.' 



" In my ' Essay on the Ornithology of New Zealand, 1865 ' (' Trans. 

 N.Z. Iiast.,' vol. i.), I stated that only two examples of Aj). australis had 

 been recorded (those noticed above) ; but Dr. Otto Finsch, in his review 

 of my essay ('Journal fiir Ornithologie,' 1867, p. 331), observes: 'Our 

 knowledge of Ap. australis, Shaw, is not confined to the two examples 

 referred to by Jlr. Buller. The Leiden Museum possesses one also, and 

 there is a very fine specimen in the Imperial collection at Vienna.' 



"Never having seen the four examples of Aj). australis thus men- 

 tioned as existing in European collections, I cannot presume to ofier any 

 positive opinion respecting them ; but having examined a large series of 



