224 Transactions. — Zoology. 



one of the most favourable where a search may be made for 

 this much prized bird. 



The roaroa, or great kiwi (Apteryx haasti), is captured occa- 

 sionally by survey-parties in southern Westland ; and this, 

 along with other valuable species, would probably reward the 

 ornithologist for a trip through the w^est coast bush. 



Art. XXII. — On Apteryx bulleri. 



By E. BowDLER Sharpe, F.L.S., F.Z.S., Hon. Mem. 



N.Z. Inst. 



[Read before the Vt^ellington Philosophical Society, 13th June, 1888.1 



During a recent examination of some skins of Apteryges, in 

 company with Sir "Walter Buller, I became firmly convinced 

 that the ordinary brown Apteryx of the North Island is cer- 

 tainly specifically distinct from the Apteryx australis of the 

 South Island ; and I was a little surprised to find, on going 

 over the literature of the subject, that, notwithstanding a 

 similar verdict on the part of such excellent naturalists as Sir 

 James Hector, Sir Julius von Haast, Professor Hutton, Mr. 

 Potts, and others, the North Island bird has not yet received 

 a distinctive name. It has generally been called by naturalists 

 Apteryx viantclli of Bartlett, under which name it appeared in 

 the first edition of Buller's "Birds of New Zealand;" and it 

 is the Avteryx australis var. mantelli, of Finsch's paper in the 

 "Journal fiir Ornithologie," 1873, p. 263. The characters 

 given by Mr. Bartlett for his Apteryx mantelli are founded on 

 the natural variations in Apteryx australis, of which 4. mantelli 

 is a pure synonym ; and the North Island Apteryx awaits a 

 title. The pair of adult birds in Sir Walter Buller's collection 

 are relatively much smaller than the corresponding sexes of 

 A. a^Lstralis, and the colour is of a blackish brown instead of 

 a tawny tint ; while the curious harsh structure of the plumage, 

 especially of the feathers of the rump and nape, is a fmther 

 character of importance. 



It gives me great pleasure to adopt a suggestion of my 

 friend Dr. Fiusch that the North Island Apteryx should be 

 called Apteryx liulleri, after the learned author of the " Birds 

 of New Zealand," a work which in its first edition seemed to 

 me to be as complete as it was possible to make a history of 

 the birds of any single area, until I saw the magnificent new 

 edition on which Sir Walter Buller is now engaged, and on 

 the completion of which I should think any one would find it 

 difficult to write anything more about the birds of New Zea- 

 land. 



