194 Transactions. ■ — Zoology. 



Mr. Docherty, tlie kiwi liunter, informed the writer that rip to the close of 

 last year (1871) he had killed about 2,200 specimens of the kiwi and rowi 

 (-4. oweni and A. australis). 



No. 63. — Apteryx mantelli, Bartl. 



Kiwi or Kiwi-nui. 



Brown Kiwi. 



North Island Kiwi. 

 The North Island kiwi is now a rare bird, seldom to be found even in 

 places where some few years since it was not uncommon. Ornithologists have 

 manifested a disposition to drop this species and refer it to tI . australis, on 

 what appears to be insufficient grounds. The writer has had opportunities at 

 divers times of becoming acquainted with living examples both of A. mantelli 

 and A. australis; he has examined several skins of the North Island species, 

 whilst hundreds of skins of the southern bird have passed under his observa- 

 tion, the result is that he arrives at conclusions which are opposed to Dr. 

 Finsch's and also Mr. Buller's views on this question, (See Trans. N.Z. 

 Inst., Yol. III., pp. 52-54). Mr. Buller writes thus : — " Mr. Bartlett draws 

 the following distinction as to the colouring of the two supposed species — 

 ^Ap. australis: Colour, pale greyish brown, darkest on the back. Aj). mantelli: 

 Colour, dark rufous brown, darkest on the back.' The above descriptions are 

 applicable, the former to the female and the latter to the male of the common 

 species." In this paragraph Mr. Buller, in a summary way, disposes of Mr. 

 Bartlett's (to our thinking) correct view of the distinction in the colour of the 

 two species, and falls into a grave error by attributing sexual difference of 

 colouration. It may not be impertinent to ask whence have specimens been 

 obtained, or in what collection can authentic examples be seen that display a 

 sexual distinction of colour hitherto unknown to the troglodytal Apterygidce 1 



That which Mr. Buller terms Mr. Bartlett's strongest point, namely, the 

 distinction to be drawn from the scutellation or reticulation of the tarsus, is 

 left for elucidation in Mr. Buller's work on our birds, now in progress. We 

 have no hesitation in maintaining that the plumage alone presents sufficiently 

 marked characteristics for the retention of the two species. In the "Catalogue 

 of the Birds of New Zealand" (p. 23) Captain Hutton in some half-a-dozen 

 words points out the distinction, which cannot be gainsaid, "^. australis: 

 Feathers soft to the touch. A. mantelli : Feathers harsh to the touch. "^ The nut 

 is cracked at a blow. The feathers which clothe the southern bird are produced 

 into soft hair-like points ; the hand passed over the plumage against the lay of 

 the feathers encounters an almost downy softness ; when compared with a 

 similar test applied to the covering of A. mantelli it might be fairly so termed. 



*See also Trans. KZ. Inst., IV., 363.— Ed. 



