Ix 



■^ould be interesting to the Club to exhibit this series of 

 skins, along with the living specimen's, and I add a (ew re- 

 marks on the geographical distribution and synonymy of this 

 very strange family of birds. 



'' Hitherto five species of Apterijx have been described and 

 accepted, viz. : — 



" Apteryx australis, Shaw. 

 A. manteUi, Bartlett (syn. A. buUeri, Sharpe). 

 A. maximus, Verreaux. 

 A. oiueni, Gould. 

 A. haasti, Potts. 



" On these five species there have been many discussions, 

 especially with regard to A. mantelli, A. haasti, and A. 

 maximus. 



" X^s, regards A. mantelli, I can only point out that Dr. Otto 

 Finsch maintained that Mr. Bartlett^'s diagnosis was founded 

 on a false basis, and he, moreover, believed that the North- 

 Island Apteryx was barely worthy of subspecific rank. Sir 

 Walter BuUer, however, and all other ornithologists who 

 have expressed any opinion on the subject, maintain, and I 

 am convinced rightly, that the North-Island bird is distinct 

 from A, avstraUs. But Sir Walter Buller unfortunately 

 misled Dr. Sharpe into re-naming the North-Island bird by 

 omitting to state that, however faint were the characters 

 which Bartlett used to diagnose his species, he most em- 

 phatically stated (P. Z. S. 18.50, p. 276) that all the 

 specimens of his A. mnnfeUi came from the North Island. 

 This fact, T think, establishes without a donbt the priority of 

 Mr. Bartlett's name of Apteryx mantelli. 



" By many people it has been maintained that Apteryx 

 haasti is a natural hybrid between A. australis and A. oweni. 

 This I believe to be entirely erroneous, because, although at 

 Okarita, where the original specimens of A. haasti were 

 obtained, A. australis and A. oweni were at one time found, 

 the localities whence I have obtained A. haasti in some 

 numbers during the last few years are quite uninhabited by 

 the other species. A. haasti at the present time inhabits the 

 crater-like vallevs between the hiofhlands of the southern and 



