196 Transactions. — Zoology. 



It is probable that other species will be added to this interesting genus ; 

 for the past two or three years we have known of the existence of a white 

 kiwi, information concerning it having been scantily furnished at intervals by 

 some wandering miner or prospector. Specimens have at different times been 

 obtained from the bush in the Martin Bay district. From the descriptions 

 that have been gathered they are not albinos, and their occurrence has been too 

 frequent for them to be classed amongst specimens showing a mere accidental 

 and rare variation either of A. oimni or A. australis ; the plumage is stated 

 to be remarkably loose, soft, and flocculent. It is suggested that the name of 

 A. TTiollis would not be inappropriate as its specific designation. A specimen 

 of this beautiful little AjHeryx in the Dunedin Museum has the bill slightly 

 curved, showing an arc elevated about one-fifteenth of its length. 



In. Lines. 

 Bill from gape to point ... ... ... ... 3 9 



Tarsus ... ... ... ... ... ... 2 5 



Middle toe and claw ... ... ... ... 2 4 



Plumage white, extremities of the feathers more or less stained with 

 yellowish; bristly integument at the base of the mandibles yellowish; narrow 

 yellowish stain round the eye ; irides brown ; feathers soft to the touch ; habitat, 

 bush about Martin Bay, west coast of Otago, 



Other specimens have been obtained at Greymouth. The men who 

 seek a living in the wilds of the S.W. coast of the South Island are not 

 given, as a class, to the study of natural history ; examples of the rarer 

 species of our fauna are not the specimens they care to hunt for. Not long 

 since the writer met with a man who had probably fed on the Notornis, and had 

 lived for two or three weeks on the rare eggs of the crested-penguin. Inquiry 

 made of a boatman at the Waitaroa concerning the eggs of a rare, perhaps 

 unknown, petrel, or Pufflnus, elicited the information that " not being pretty 

 at all they were hoved away." A similar fate befel some eggs of the white 

 heron, " because they would not go in the billy." Auri sacra fames, our 

 noble motto, oft blunts the spirit of inquiry about all other objects. When 

 journeying along the West Coast the writer was informed by a very intelligent 

 Teremakau native that far to the south a black kiwi was to be met with ; he 

 described it as " all the same as the kiwi, only black." Probably this may be 

 the bird which the Bruce Bay Maoris call the toko-weka ; Apteryx fusca 

 would properly distinguish this sombre-plumed species. There seems to be 

 some tendency to dusky colours along the S.W. coast as seen in this kiwi, 

 Ocydromus, etc., the black shag, for a long distance at least, according to our 

 observation, frequents such points as are occupied by P, punctatus on the 

 eastern side, so also Hoimatopus unicolor is there found in far greater 

 abundance than U. longirostris. 



