MantelVs Apteryx at the Zoological Gardens. 315


New Zealand, and named Apteryx mistralis. This specimen

being still preserved in the Liverpool Museum.


There are four species recognised as distinct at the present

time, namely A. australis a reddish brown bird, from the South

Island, described by Shaw in 1813 ; A. oweni , also of the South

Island, much greyer than the others, described by Gould in



MANTELL'S APTERYX.



(From Mivart’s Elements of Ornithology).


1847 ; A. mantelli a blackish bird inhabiting the North Island,

described by Bartlett in 1850 ; and A. haasti of the mountain

ranges of the South Island, described by Potts in 1871.


The Apteriges are generally admitted to be related to the

RatitcB or Strutliious birds, though they differ very markedly in

several ways from these, perhaps the most notable feature which

separates them from all other birds is the position of the nostrils

which are situated at almost the extremity of the bill.


Sir Walter Buller has given a long account of these birds

in his Birds of Neiv Zeala?id (2nd ed. II., p. 313), and Rowley

has also gone into the subject thoroughly in his Orinithological

Miscellajiy (Vol. I. p. 2), but the most up-to-date paper is that by

the Hon. Walter Rothschild in the Novitates Zoologicce for 1899,

pp. 361—386, and the following extract will be read with interest.

He writes:—“ The Kiwis are very swift runners, and can make

very good use of their extremely powerful legs. They are

always ready to kick at any object ayproaching them closely. In

kicking they strike forward like an Emu or an Ostrich, but I



