204 Transactions. — Zoology. 



species are doomed to rapid extinction goes without saying, 

 and every lover of natural history will therefore learn with 

 delight that, under the direction of the Otago Acclimatisation 

 Society, Eesolution Island is now being stocked with all these 

 vanishing forms, so that there is yet a chance of a remnant 

 being preserved for the naturalist of the future. The Little 

 Barrier Island having recently been taken over by the Auck- 

 land Acclimatisation Society, we may look for excellent work 

 there also. 



But to return to Apteryx Jiaasti. 1 elicited from my col- 

 lector one very singular fact : on the western watershed of 

 the Heaphy Eange, where, as a rule, Apteryx haasti alone is 

 found, the loose ground is inhabited by a very large earth- 

 worm, on which this species principally feeds. On the eastern 

 side, where the Grey Kiwi (Apteryx oweni) abounds, the large 

 earthworm is not to be found, its place being supplied by a 

 very small earthworm, on which this species seems exclusively 

 to subsist. The summit of the main range — say a tract about 

 a mile in width — distinctly divides the range of one species 

 from that of the other. May not this remarkable difference in 

 the natural food-supply have influenced the development of 

 these two closely-allied species in divergent lines — the one 

 being now distinguished by its massive skeleton and robust 

 proportions, and the other by its slender structure and gene- 

 rally feeble development ? The general style of the plumage 

 is the same in both, it being easy, in a sufficient series of 

 specimens, to trace a gradation from the dappled - brown 

 plumage of Apteryx haasti to the dappled-grey plumage of 

 Apteryx oweni. 



Apteryx lawryi, Eothschild. (Stewart Island Kiwi.) 



On the 21st February I killed a pair of Apteryx laivryi re- 

 ceived from Stewart Island. Although the birds had been 

 in captivity for six weeks, and had lost all their fat, the male 

 weighed 5|^lb. and the female 7^1b. 



The following measurements were taken from the speci- 

 mens before being skinned : — 



Male. — Extreme length, to end of tail 26in., to end of out- 

 stretched legs 36in. ; rudimentary wing, lin. ; terminal claw, 

 following curvature, 0'25in.; bill, along the ridge 4-56in., along 

 the edge of lower mandible 5-25in. ; tarsus, Sin. ; middle toe 

 and claw, 3'5in. ; hallux, 0'6in. ; circumference of tarsus, in 

 the middle 2-25in., at the junction of the toes 4-2in. 



Female. — Extreme length, to end of tail 30in., to end 

 of outstretched legs 39*5in. ; rudimentary wing, l'5in. ; ter- 

 minal claw, following curvature, 0'5in. ; bill, along the ridge 

 6-75in., along the edge of lower mandible 7'25in. ; tarsus, 



