ICO Mr. II. O. Forbes on Aptc-ryx Ilaasti. 



ever coniniitted to print my opinions upon the species of 

 Ajiteryx. I sliould be glad, therefore, if Mr. Roth.'^chiKl will 

 be so kind as to give me a reference to the publication in 

 wliich 1 have made the statement that Aptcryx Ilaasti " is a 

 natural hybrid of ^. australis and A. Owenii.''^ Having had 

 charge, however, of the type specimens of A. Ilaasti for some 

 years, I naturally made a somewhat careful examination of 

 them ; and the opinion I formed then I still retain, that 

 A. Haasti is most probably a natural hybrid between the 

 two above-named species. This, however, is, I believe, the 

 first occasion on which I have exjircssed in writinf] i\\\^ opiuion. 

 The type specimens of this bird in the Canterbury Museum 

 were obtained on the west coast of the South Island, and 

 from the region in which A. australis and A. Oiceni both 

 abound. I am therefore again surprised to read Mr. Roth- 

 schild's afhrniation that Apteryx Ilaasti is known only from 

 the North \AawA, as on page 830 of his ' Birds of New Zealand ' 

 (2nd ed. vol. ii.) Sir "Walter Buller has the following remark 

 in reference to these very specimens : — " These [specimens of 

 A. Ilaasti'] were obtained on the high ranges above Okarita, 

 on the west coast of the South Island, where, according to 

 the resident natives, the large Grey Kiwi is tolerably 

 common." Mr. llothschild bases his belief in the distinctness 

 of .^. Ilaasti as a good and pure species on its geographical 

 dislrilution, on the size of the bird and the length of its beak, 

 and on variations in its cajcum. As I have shown, the infer- 

 ence from its distribution signally fails. It is well known, 

 too, that the various species of Apteryx vary greatly in size. 

 In the Canterbury Museum, N. Z., there is a very large 

 specimen of A. australis, nearly equalling the Apteryx 

 maxima belonging to Mr. llothschild, as I remarked to one 

 or two of my friends at the recent meeting of the Zoological 

 Society at which it was exhibited. Before leaving New 

 Zealand 1 had also, through the kindness of Mr. A. Hamil- 

 ton, of the Otago University, Dunedin, an opportunity of 

 examining a large collection of A pte7-yx ci-Ania (both australis 

 and Oweni) discovered in one of the limestone caves of 

 Otago, and was particularly struck by the great variability in 

 length and strength of the beaks, some being remarkably long. 

 I hope Mr. Hamilton will ere long favour ornithologists with 

 a description of these remains. In regard to the variations 

 observable in the caecum, does not their divergence in the two 

 sexes oi A. JIaasti afiord a presumption in favour of hybrldity ? 

 If it were a true species, should we not look for a close agree- 

 ment between the internal anatomy of the male and female ? 

 . Further, Mr. Rothschild states that the native name for 



