Buller. — Illustrations of Darwinism. 83 



tween these species, at certain points, are so indeterminate 

 that ornithologists are not yet agreed as to how many inde- 

 pendent species should be recognised. Dr. Otto Pinsch, the 

 well-known German scientist, contends that the North Island 

 bird cannot be separated from Apteryx australis, except as a 

 local variety, although in this view he now stands alone; 

 Professor Newton, whose opinion always carries great weight 

 with me, declares his inability to distinguish the former as 

 a species distinct from Apteryx laivryi of Stewart Island, 

 although he recognises Apteryx australis, which occupies an 

 intermediate range of country. But the Professor is also_ in 

 some doubt as to the propriety of admitting Apteryx haasti as 

 a species. 



Mr. Walter Eothschild, who owns the largest collection of 

 Apteryges in the world (some thirty living birds, and I be- 

 lieve over a hundred skins), has, after mature consideration, 

 decided to separate the spotted grey Kiwis into two species — 

 Apteryx oiceni (Gould) and Apteryx occidentalis (Roths.). 

 Of the latter he possesses a living example, obtained in the 

 neighbourhood of Milford Sound, nearly as large as Apteryx 

 haasti and very different in appearance from Apteryx oiveni, 

 having banded plumage, a dark head, and blackish-grey feet. 

 To this he refers Mr. Morgan Carkeek's example from the 

 Tararua Ranges (North Island), and a number of specimens 

 collected by different persons on the west coast of the South 

 Island. Of the distinctness of his type I have no doubt 

 whatever ; but I am not quite prepared to follow him in 

 uniting the others with it. They seem to me to be a form 

 intermediate between it and the Little Grey Kiwi {Apteryx 

 cwcni) with which we are all so familiar. Here, in fact, we 

 have an instance of the boundary-line between one supposed 

 species and another being so indistinct as to occasion constant 

 doubt and confusion in the discrimination of the forms. 



Then, again, with regard to Apteryx mantelli, in the North 

 Island. You are no doubt familiar with the chestnut-brown 

 Kiwi which inhabits the Pirongia Ranges and is found all the 



australis are very slight, they are apparently constant, owing, no doubt, to 

 the isolation of the species." 



Mr. Rothschild declines to adopt Dr. Sharpe's proposed name of 

 Apteryx bulleri for the North Island Kiwi, on the ground that the bird 

 originally named Apteryx mantelli by Mr. Bartlett came from the North 

 Island, which fact, in his opinion, " establishes, without a doubt, the 

 priority of Mr. Bartlett's name." He says, further, " As regards A. man- 

 telli, I can only point out that Dr. Otto Pinsch maintained that Mr. 

 Bartlett's diagnosis was founded on a false basis, and he, moreover, 

 believed that the North Island Apteryx was barely worthy of sub-specific 

 rank. Sir Walter Buller, however, and all other ornithologists who have 

 expressed any opinion on the subject, maintain, and, I am convinced, 

 rightly, that the North Island bird' is distinct from A. australis." 



