The Zoologist — April, 1874. 3939 



E. — Male, killed near Akaroa, in the same month (August), has 

 the interscapulars and dorsals margined with rich ferruginous j the 

 yellow edge on the basal part of lower mandible indistinct. 



F. — Male, obtained on Banks Peninsula, in March, has the 

 growing secondaries and rectrices black ; a sprinkling of the same 

 colour on the auriculars ; upper wing-coverts, dorsals, upper and 

 under tail-coverts, ferruginous. 



It may be noted, from the description of these specimens of the 

 young state, how much variation may be met with, owing in part 

 to the extended breeding-season perhaps; and it may be that the 

 adult state is not arrived at till the second year. The plumage of 

 the adult bird is deep glossy black ; back, wing-coverts, upper and 

 lower tail-coverts ferruginous ; bill, tarsi and feet black ; irides 

 dark brown ; caruncles from yellow to red ; bill from gape one inch 

 five lines ; tarsus one inch six lines ; wing from flexure four inches ; 

 tail three inches six lines; total length ten inches; weight two 

 ounces and three-quarters. The tieke abounds in the Westland 

 bush ; its note is there one of the common bird-sounds : it finds 

 abundant means of support in the insect-life which exists out of 

 reach of the kiwi. Last season my friend revisited the kahikatea 

 on the bank of the Ahaura, but the saddlebacks had not agaiu 

 resorted to the hole for breeding. 



Big Kiwi (Apteryx australis, Shaiv); "rowi" of the natives; 

 "big kiwi" of the miners. — Why should there be so much mystery 

 about the habits of birds so well known as kiwis ? Their flesh 

 has for years been recognized as forming a part of the bush-food of 

 the prospector or digger in Westland ; just as much so, indeed, as 

 that of the pigeon, the weka or the kaka, still we have not any 

 minute history of this quaint-looking creature. There are, in tlie 

 writer's opinion, probably five or six species of Apteryx ; of these 

 all but one are supposed to exist on the South Island, whilst 

 A. Mantelli is now the sole representative of the race in the North 

 Island. The rowi, or big kiwi, of the west coast of the South Island, 

 is far more local in its distribution than is A. Oweni, or even perhaps 

 than A. Mantelli : according to Mr. Docherty, it is known to inhabit 

 certain districts, the well-defined boundaries of which it does not 

 attempt to pass: its range is as isolated and distinctly marked as 

 though impassable barriers existed between its haunts and the 

 surrounding country. We have had many opportunities of watching 

 the mode of progression of three kinds of kiwi, and of judging of 



