Fan. 5, 1871 | 
NATURE 
IQ! 

various sorts. The colour of this bird is of a bright 
green, freckled with black, which is said to assimilate it 
exactly to the mosses of the New Zealand forests where it 
is found. Although disappointed in not retaining posses- 
sion of the example of this parrot which has been already 
in the Gardens, we are in great hopes (from intelligence 
lately received from New Zealand) of the approaching 
arrival of other individuals of this rare bird. 
The Kiwi or Apteryx, which I mentioned above as a 
third remarkable form of New Zealandian bird-life, has 
long been represented in the Zoological Society’s living 
collection. In December 1857, Mr. Eyre, then Lieut.- 
Governor of the Colony, presented to us the first example 
of this remarkable form that had ever been brought alive 
to Europe. This bird is a female, as has been evidenced 
by her producing enormous eggs for several years in suc- 
cession. The first of these eggs was deposited in June 
1859, since which time she has usually laid two in the 


























spring of every year, at intervals of about a month between 
them. The egg of the Apteryx when first deposited 
weighs about r4hoz. ; it is smooth and of a dirty white 
colour, and measures 4}in. in length by 2;%5in. in breadth. 
As the weight of the parent bird is only about 60 0z., it 
will be seen that the weight of the egg is nearly equal to 
one-fourth of the bird, a fact, I suppose, quite without 
parallel in the animal kingdom. Since the acquisition of 
the female, two additional specimens of the Apteryx, both 
of the opposite sex, have been received: one in 1864, pre- 
sented by Major Keane, and a second in 1865, presented 
by Mr. Henry Slade. The female continuing to produce 
eggs after the males had been placed in her company, we 
were in hopes of rearing young Kiwis in the Gardens, 
especially as on more than one occasion the male, as is 
the custom among Struthious birds, commenced to in- 
cubate. This operation he performed by squatting closely 
onthe egg placed between his feet, so that its long axis 




































TUATERA LIZAKD 
was parallel to that of his body. Unfortunately, however, 
in no case has there been any result, and the eggs 
when examined have shown no appearance of having 
been impregnated. And at length our sole surviving 
male fell a victim to the exemplary zeal with which he 
performed the duties of incubation. After sitting upon 
one of these huge eggs for upwards of six weeks, he 
died, probably from exhaustion, so that the original 
female, received in 1851, is at present the only repre- 
sentative of the species in the Society’s Gardens. 
Besides the above-mentioned specimens of Mantell’s 
Apteryx (which is probably not really different from the 
original Apéery x australis of Shaw) the Zoological Society 
have recently received a single living example of the un- 
doubtedly distinct Owen’s Apteryx (Afferyx owennt). 
This bird arrived in July 1869, having been forwarded as 
a present from the Acclimatisation Society of Otago. It 

is readily distinguishable from the ordinary species by its 
smaller size, spotted feathers, and the softer and more 
fluffy plumage, but is closely allied to it in general struc- 
ture and in all other peculiarities. 
The fourth bird that I mentioned as one of the more 
remarkable bird-forms inhabiting New Zealand, has not 
yet been received in this country in a living state, indeed 
it is only quite recently that naturalists have become per- 
fectly acquainted with the eccentricity of its structure. It 
is a small wading bird, allied to the Shore-plovers, but 
possessing the extraordinary feature of having the end of 
its bill curved towards the right. By the examination of the 
chick of the Anarhynchus frontalis, as this singular bird 
is called, Professor Newton has recently shown that this 
abnormality commences from the egg.* Such instances 
of asymmetrical structure are very rare amongst the more 
* Proc, Zool. Soc. Noy. 1s 1870, p. 674. 
