Bulleb. — Illustrations of Darwinism. 79 



under families." Following the subject up with consummate 

 skill, and bringing together a marvellous array of facts and 

 observations, Darwin has shown very conclusively that de- 

 scent with modification has been from time immemorial the 

 means, whether naturally or artificially it matters not, of 

 producing new and distinct forms of animal and vegetable 

 life. The subject is on the face of it a very attractive one, 

 and, when we come to deal with the actual facts, there is 

 room for almost endless speculation in all directions. But 

 what I propose to do this evening is to single out some well- 

 established features and peculiarities of the New Zealand 

 avifauna, to which, as you are aware, I have for many years 

 given special attention, and to consider their direct bearing on 

 the theory of evolution, or, putting it the other way about, to 

 endeavour to find in the Darwinian doctrine of natural de- 

 velopment their true and rational explanation. 



Perhaps there is no country in the world where the pro- 

 cess of natural selection atnong birds has had so favourable a 

 field for its operation as New Zealand, owing to its great age 

 as a continental island, and to the entire absence of natural 

 enemies, up to the time, at any rate, of its occupation by 

 man and the introduction of domestic animals which after- 

 wards became feral. As a result, what do we find here as 

 repi'esenting the ancient order of Eatite birds? I will not 

 refer at present to the Moa and its kindred, because these 

 birds have become extinct, and, except by way of analogy, do 

 not come into my present subject. But look at the genus 

 Apteryx, taking, for illustration, the eldest known member of 

 the genus, A. australis. Here is a bird with, so to speak, the 

 body of a turkey and the wings of a sparrow, these limbs 

 having become so dwarfed by the operation of natural laws 

 that they are reduced to mere rudiments ; yet all the muscular 

 parts, aborted and atrophied though they be, become perfectly 

 distinct under the dissecting knife. Unlike all other known 

 birds, instead of having the nostrils placed in the nasal groove, 

 or on the ridge of the bill (as in the Petrel family), they are 

 situated under a terminal protuberance at the extreme end of 

 the upper mandible ; and on examination it is seen that the 

 produced upper mandible is in reality a prolongation of the 

 facial bones — the result, no doubt, of long-continued gradual 

 development in that direction — the brain being pushed back, 

 as it were, into a remarkably small cranial pan for the size of 

 the bird. These modifications of structure are of course 

 adaptations to the feeding habits of the bird, which subsists 

 principally on earthworms, in search of which, aided by its 

 power of smell, it probes the soft ground or loose vegetable 

 mould in its forest haunts. In addition to this the head is 

 furnished with long rictal hairs or feelers, as sensitive as the 



