LIVING IN THE SOCIETY'S MENAGERIE. 363 



have become quite extinct. But in the island called Houtourou, or Little Barrier 

 Island (a small island, completely wooded, rising about 1000 feet above the sea-level, 

 and only accessible when the sea is quite calm), which is situated in the Gulf of Hauraki, 

 near Auckland, it is said to be still tolerably common. In the inhabited portions of 

 the southern districts of the Northern Island also, it is become nearly exterminated by 

 men, dogs, and wild cats, and is only to be found here in the more inaccessible and less 

 populous mountain-chains — that is, in the wooded mountains between Cape Palliser and 

 East Cape. 



" But the inhabitants of the Northern Island speak also of two sorts of Kiwi, which 

 they distinguish as Kiwi-nui (Large Kiwi) and Kiwi-iti (Small Kiwi). The Kiwi-nui is 

 said to be found in the Tuhna district, west of Lake Taupo, and is, in my opinion, 

 Apteryx mantelli. The Kiwi-iti may possibly be Apteryx owenii, though I can give no 

 certain information on this subject." 



4. Apteryx maxima. 



" TTie Fireman," Gould in Birds of Australia, sub tab. 3. vol. vi. 

 "Apteryx maxima,Verreaux," Bp. Compt. Rend. Acad. Sc. xliii. p. 841. 

 " Roa-roa " of the natives of the Southern Island. 



The existence of a larger species of Apteryx in the Middle Island of New Zealand has 

 long ago been afBrmed ; and though no specimens of this bird have yet reached Europe, 

 the following remarks of Dr. von Hochstetter seem to leave no reasonable doubt of its 

 actual existence : — 



" ^e&iAe^ Apteryx owenii, a second larger species lives on the Middle Island, of which, 

 although no examples have yet reached Europe, the existence is nevertheless quite 

 certain. The natives distinguish this species not as a Kiwi, but as a Roa, because it is 

 larger than A. owenii (Roa meaning ' long ' or ' tall '). 



"John Rochfort, Provincial Surveyor in Nelson, who returned from an expedition to 

 the western coast of the province while I was staying at Nelson, in his report, which 

 appeared in the ' Nelson Examiner ' of August 24th, 1859, describes this species, which 

 is said to be by no means uncommon in the Paparoa elevation, between the Grey and 

 Buller Rivers, in the following terms : — ' A Kiwi about the size of a turkey, very power- 

 ful, having spurs on his feet, and which, when attacked by a dog, defends himself so 

 well as frequently to come off victorious.' 



"My friend Julius Haast, a German, who was my travelling companion in New 

 Zealand, and in the beginning of the year 1860 undertook an exploring expedition to 

 the southern and western parts of the province of Nelson, writes to me, in a letter 

 dated July 1860, from ten miles above the mouth of the river Buller, on the moun- 

 tains of the Buller chain, which at a height of from 3000 to 4000 feet were at that 

 time (it being winter in New Zealand) slightly covered with snow, that the tracks of 



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