SHORT-\YINGED CURSORIAL BIRDS. 31I 



hairs ; the tarsus is longer, and scutellated in front, and the toes and claws shorter than in the 



A. Australis. The length of the body is twenty-three inches ; the bill measures four, the tarsus two 



inches and three-quarters, and the centre toe, with claw, two inches and a half An unmated female, 



in the London Zoological Gardens, several times laid an egg, in all about nine, and, according to 



Mr. Layard, manifested a strong desire to sit, placing herself upon the egg, and resisting all attempts 



to remove her from her position. This Apteryx, and die A. Australis, are regarded by Gould as 



belonging to the same species. 



OWEN'S APTERYX. 



Owen's Apteryx {Apteryx Owenii) has the face, head, and neck of a dull yellowish brown ; the 

 throat somewhat paler ; all the upper surface is fulvous, transversely rayed with blackish brown, each 

 individual feather being silvery brown at the base, darker brown in the middle, then crossed by a 

 lunate mark of fulvous, to which succeeds an irregular mark of black, and terminated with fulvous ; 

 the feathers of the under surface are paler than on the upper, a circumstance which is caused by each 

 feather being crossed by three rays of fulvous instead of two, and more largely tipped mth that colour; 

 the feathers of the thighs resemble those of the back; the bill is dull yellowish horn-colour j the 

 feet and claws fleshy brown. The total length is eighteen inches ; bill three inches and five-eighths, 

 breadth at base two inches and a quarter ; the middle toe and nail measure two inches and a half, 

 and tarsi two inches and a quarter. 



The above description is from a specimen sent to Mr. Gould in 1850; since then he has obtained 

 several others, all of which came from the South Island of New Zealand. This bird, according to 

 Mr. Gould, is rendered conspicuously different from the Apteryx Australis, with which it accords in 

 size, by the irregular transverse barring of the entire plumage, which, together with its extreme density 

 and hair-like appearance, gives it more the resemblance of a mammal than of a bird. It has a shorter, 

 slenderer, and more curved bill, and the feathers also differ in structure, being broader throughout, 

 especially at the tip, and of a loose, decomposed, and hair-like texture. 



" In the spurs of the Southern Alps, on Cook's Straits, in the pro\'ince of Nelson," says 

 Dr. Hochstetter, " that is, in the higher wooded mountain-valleys of the Wairau chain, and westward 

 of Blind Bay, in die wooded mountains between the Motucha and Aorere valleys, this species is still 

 found in great numbers. During my stay in the province of Nelson I had two living e,\amples, a 

 male and a female ; they were procured by some natives I sent out for the purpose in the upper 

 wooded valleys of the river Slate, a confluent of the Aorere, in a country elevated from 2^000 to 

 3,000 feet above the sea-level." 



As might naturally be expected, these interesting but defenceless birds are rapidly becoming 

 extinct ; a few, however, may still be found in the more unfrequented and thickly-wooded parts of the 

 Northern Island of New Zealand. From the inhabited districts they have been completely extirpated ; 

 indeed, Dieffenbach tells us that during the eighteen months of his residence in New Zealand, 

 notwithstanding the liberal rewards promised to the natives, he only succeeded in procuring a single 

 skin, and even that was obtained from a European setder, who said that he procured it from 

 Mongonui Station, to the northward of the Bay of Islands. 



Among the localities where the Kivi is sdll obtainable may be mentioned Litrie Barrier Island, 

 a small, wooded island in Hauraki Bay, near Auckland, which is evidently the top of a high mountain, 

 rising some 2,383 feet above the level of the sea, and only approachable in the calmest weather. 



There seems to be litde difficulty in keeping these birds in a state of captivity, and in the 

 Gardens of the London Zoological Society, in the Regent's Park, several specimens have been 

 successfully exhibited. Their cage is simply a dark kennel, having in one corner a sufficient quantity 

 of straw, among which the birds remain caremlly hidden during the day. Should their keeper take 



