May 14, 1839. 

 Sir John P. Boileau, Bart., in the Chair. 



A letter from Dr. Cantor was read. In this letter Dr. Cantor begs 

 the Society's acceptance of a collection of Reptiles and Fishes from 

 India, and states that this collection consists of about sixty speci- 

 mens of Reptiles, and upwards of one hundred and fifty specimens 

 of Fishes, a great portion of which are new species, and have been 

 described by himself. 



A letter from Allan Cunningham, Esq., dated Sydney, New South 

 Wales. 26th November, 1838, was read. This letter accompanied 

 the skin of an Apteryx, and also the body, preserved for dissection, 

 which Mr. Cunningham had procured during a visit to New Zealand, 

 and which he presented to the Society. 



A paper communicated by Mr. Cunningham, and entitled " Rough 

 notes collected from the New Zealanders (by aid of the missionaries), 

 on the habits of the Apteryx Australis, a bird of New Zealand, closely 

 allied to the StruthionidtB, and named by the native inhabitants 

 Kiwi," was also read. " This most remarkable bird,'" says Mr. Cun- 

 ningham, " inhabits the densest and darkest forests. In those near the 

 Kerikeri and Waimate missionary stations, a few miles from the shores 

 of the Bay of Islands, it was formerly frequently observed and taken, 

 as it is still to be found in the woods of the Hokianga river. It is 

 however by no means confined to any particular district, for it is to 

 be met with in all the wooded parts of the northern island. In these 

 humid forests it reposes during the day, either beneath the tufts of 

 long sedgy grass, a species of Carex everywhere abounding in the 

 woods, or it hides itself, shunning the light, in the hollows at the base 

 of the "Rata" tree, (Metrosideros robusta A. C. — n. s.) In these 

 situations it constructs a very simple nest, laying, as all agree, but 

 a solitary egg, which is about the size of a duck's, or as some na- 

 tives assert, nearly as large as that of a goose, with which bird 

 they are now familiar, the missionaries and other Europeans having 

 some time since introduced it to their poultry-yards. Its period of 

 incubation could not be ascertained from the natives. No sooner 

 are its native woods darkened by the presence of night, than it 

 ranges about in quest of food, which (as all accounts inform us) is 

 exclusively worms, procured by burrowing with its feet, and perfo- 

 rating slightly the soft humid subsoil with its attenuated bill ; and 

 doubtless it is directed in the night by powerful instinct to the spots 

 where these abound, for its eyes are very small, and its upper man- 

 dible, with the nasal orifices at its extremity or tip, possesses doubt- 

 less an acute sense of smelling. 



" It is not gregarious, and but very seldom indeed to be seen in 

 small numbers : generally they are in pairs (a male and female) ; 



N ? LXXVII. — PaocEEniNGs of thk Zoological Society. 



