146 Transactions. — Zoology. 



kiwis will be plentiful for some time if not troubled by stoats 

 and weasels. I have a perfect egg, which I felt in a kiwi 

 obtained from a native. Thinking the egg would be broken if 

 laid, I chloroformed the bird and cut the egg out. It is per- 

 fect, and I have it yet. I have received eggs from July until 

 Februai-y, but the eggs I got in February contained fully 

 developed and feathered chicks. 



Art. XVII.— iVotes on the Fourth Skin of Notornis. 



By W. Blaxland Benham, D.Sc.Lond., M.A. Oxon., 

 Professor of Biology in the University of Otago. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 13th September, 1898.] 



The news that a fourth specimen of Notornis had been cap- 

 tured was received with the greatest interest, not merely by 

 naturalists, but by the public generally. The following 

 history of the bird deserves to be recorded, since a state- 

 ment in a recent text-book on ornithology gives the impression 

 that it is already extinct. Dr. Gadow, in Bronn's " Thier- 

 reichs : Aves," says, on page 182 of the systematic part, that 

 the bird " kiirzlich aus-gestorben." 



I need not here enter into a history of the previous cap- 

 tures ; it is fully recorded in Sir Walter Buller's valuable 

 work. Suffice it to recall the fact that the present specimen 

 is the fourth only that has been seen in the flesh during fifty 

 years ; or, rather, I should say the capture of which has been 

 recorded by naturalists, because, from various sources, we are 

 led to believe that specimens have been not infrequently 

 killed and eaten by Maoris and by settlers, and parts of the 

 skeletons of several others are known from various parts of 

 the South Island. The present bird was captured on the 7th 

 August, by the dog belonging to Mr. Ross, under the circum- 

 stances recorded in the following paragraph which appeared 

 in the Otago Daily Times : — 



" It appears that on Sunday morning, the 7th August, as 

 the Messrs. Eoss lay awake in their bunks, they heard an 

 unusual bird-call in the bush near the edge of the lake, and 

 about 100 yards or so from their camp. In discussing it they 

 came to the conclusion that it was not unlike a certain double 

 call often made by the Calif ornian quail, only more bass — not 

 so sharp and clear as the quail-call. The peculiar call was 

 discussed, but nothing more happened until evening. One of 

 the Messrs. Ross was then taking a walk along the beach just 



