APPENDIX. 5G7 



tion, by the male bird. Unfortunately, however, as before 

 mentioned, it was destroyed by rats the night after its birth." 

 —Proc. ZooL Soc, 1863, p. 518. 



Family APTEEYGID^. 



Of this strictly New Zealand family two or three species are 

 now in existence, and others may yet be discovered. 



Genus APTERYX, Shaw, 



For our first knowledge of the existence of an Apteryx we 

 are indebted to the late Dr. Shaw, to whom the specimen 

 figured by him in the' Naturahsts' Miscellany ' was presented 

 by Captain Barclay, of the ship ' Providence,' who brought it 

 from New Zealand about 1812. Dr. Shaw's figure was accom- 

 panied by a detailed drawing of the bill, foot, and rudimentary 

 wing, of the natural size. After Dr. Shaw's death, his at that 

 time unique specimen passed into the possession of the late 

 Earl of Derby, then Lord Stanley. His Lordship's being a pri- 

 vate collection, and no other specimen having been seen either 

 on the continent or in England, the existence of the species was 

 doubted by naturalists generally for upwards of twenty yeai'S. 

 M. Temminck, it is true, placed it with hesitation in an order to 

 which he gave the title of Inertes, comprehending the present 

 bird and the Dodo ; but other naturalists were inclined to 

 deny its existence altogether. The history of the bird re- 

 mained in this state until June 1833, when the late Mr. 

 Yarrell published in the ' Transactions of the Zoological 

 Society ' an interesting paper, detailing all that had been 

 previously made known respecting it, and fully established it 

 among accredited species : this paper was accompanied by a 

 figure from the original specimen then in the possession of the 

 late Earl of Derby, but now forming part of his Lordship's 

 magnificent bequest to the Town of Liverpool. 



