Ornithologists' Club. 429 



and which had been brought by the owner to the British 

 Museum (Nat, Hist.) for identification in March last. 

 One was a very handsome specimen, but the second was 

 somewhat damaged : they had no history beyond the fact 

 that they were purchased at a country sale amongst a lot of 

 old " curios." 



The Hon. Walter Rothschild exhibited an egg of the 

 Great Auk from his collection. 



Mr. Rothschild likewise brought for exhibition some 

 eggs of Queen Victoria's Rifle-bird {Ptilorhis victoria), 

 which had been obtained by Mr. Meek on the coast of 

 Queensland, opposite to the Barnard Islands, where the 

 species was first discovered. 



Some skins and living specimens of Apteryx were also 

 exhibited by Mr. Rothschild, who made the following 

 remarks on the birds : — 



" At the meeting of the Club held last June, when I read 

 a paper on the known species of Apteryx, it appeared to me 

 that several Members present were still far from satisfied 

 that Apteryx haasti was really a species, and not a hybrid 

 between Apteryx australis and Apteryx oweni. 



" Since the meeting in June I have received some twenty- 

 five more specimens of Apteryx haasti, making a series of 

 sixty skins now in my possession, all of which show no varia- 

 tion whatever except in size. 



" About three weeks ago I received four living specimens 

 of an Apteryx, which were noticed, on their landing, to be 

 very distinct. On careful examination I was at once struck 

 by the presence of cross-bars on the plumage, as well as by 

 the longitudinal stripes usually seen in the plumage of 

 Apteryx mantelli. Further investigation, together with the 

 fact that the plumage on none of the four examples is 

 identical, clearly shows them to be hybrids between Apderyx 

 mantelli and Apteryx occidentalis. It will thus be seen at a 

 glance that, while all specimens of Apteryx haasti are 

 regularly barred, the hybrids between barred foi'ms and 



