176 REPORT 1861. 



whole, I have been led to the conviction that further experiments are re- 

 quired, which, if properly devised, will not only lead to some important 

 practical results, but perhaps throw light on obscure portions of the theory 

 of sound. I may be permitted to suggest, therefore, that experiments should 

 be made, 1st, on the best kind of sound for penetrating fogs; 2nd, on the 

 adaptation of the principle of interferences for determining directions ; 3rd, 

 on the best mode of utilizing the sound-conducting properties of water, by 

 the use of screens and hydrophones ; ith, on the best construction of double 

 ear-trumpets for assisting observers in deciding upon the direction of a given 

 sound ; 5th, on the influence of winds in modifying the intensity and ap- 

 parent direction of sounds. 



Report on the Present State of our Knowledge of the Birds of 

 the Genus Apteryx living in Neio Zealand. By Philip Lutley 

 ScLATER and Ferdinand von Hochstetter. 



There appears to be sufficient evidence of the present existence of at least 

 four species of birds of the genus Apteryx in New Zealand, concerning 

 which we beg to offer the following remarks, taking the species one after 

 the other, in the order that they have become successively known to science. 



1. Apteryx AusTRALis. 



Apteryx australis, Shaw, Nat. Misc. xxiv. pis. 1057, 1058, and Gen. Zool. 

 Xiii. p. 71; Bartlett, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850, p. 275; Yarrell, Trans. Zool. 

 Soc. i. p. 71. pi. 10. 



The Apteryx australis was originally made known to science by Dr. Shaw 

 about the year 1813, from an example obtained in New Zealand by Capt. 

 Barclay, of the ship ' Providence.' This bird, which was deposited in the 

 collection of the late Lord Derby, was afterwards described at greater lengtii 

 in 1833 in the 'Transactions of the Zoological Society' by Mr. Yarrell, 

 and was still at that date the only specimen of tliis singular form known to 

 exist. Examples oi Apteryx subsequently obtained, though generally referreil 

 to the present species, have mostly belonged to the closely allied Apteryx 

 mantelli of Bartlett, as we shall presently show, though specimens of the 

 true Apteryx australis exist in the British Museum and several other 

 collections. 



The original bird described by Dr. Shaw is stated by Mr. Bartlett (Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1850, p. 276) to have come from Dusky Bay in the province of 

 Otago, Middle Island, where Dr. Mantell's specimen, upon which Mr. Bart- 

 lett grounded his observations as to the distinctness of this species and 

 Apteryx maiitelli, was also procured. 



Dr. Hochstetter was able to learn nothing of the existence of this Apteryx 

 in the province of Nelson in the same island ; and the species is so closely 

 allied to the Apteryx mantelli, as to render it very desirable that furtiier 

 examples of it should be obtained, and a rigid comparison instituted between 

 the two. At present, however, we must regard this form of Apteryx as 

 belonging to the southern portion of the Middle Island. 



2. Apteryx owenii. 



Apteryx owenii, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 184<7, p. 94 ; Birds of Australia, 

 vi. pi. 3. 



