﻿Potts. — On a New Species of Apteiyx. 205 



that it was considered to be a new species by the writer, and named A. Haastii 

 in compliment to Dr. Haast. From a note by the collector it appears to have 

 been obtained high on the ranges. Subsequently a second specimen was pro- 

 cured, the precise locality not given, but probably from the ranges above 

 Okarita. The first specimen (No. 1) which we take to be that of an adult 

 female, may be described thus : — Face, head, and neck, dull brown, darkest in 

 a line from the gape to, and immediately behind the ear, and on the nape ; 

 upper surface indistinctly barred with blackish brown and rich fulvous, each 

 feather crossed with marks of dark brown, and fulvoTis, approaching to 

 chestnut on the apical bai'S ; chin greyish brown ; throat dull brown, indis- 

 tinctly marked with fulvous ; breast and abdomen dull brown, barred with 

 pale fulvous ; straggling hairs about the base of the bill, black, some produced 

 to the extent of 3 '5 inches; bill yellowish ivory, measuring from the gape to 

 the end of the upper mandible, 5 "6 inches ; upper mandible over-reaching 

 lower mandible by 0'3 of an inch; tarsus, 2-5 inches; middle toe, with claw, 

 2-6 inches. 



Specimen No. 2. — Face, head, and neck, dark brown, blackish brown on 

 the nape ; entire plumage richer in colour than specimen No. 1 ; on the back 

 of the thighs a chestnut bar, a bar of chestnut crossing the plumage above the 

 tarsal joint; upper mandible measuring, from the gape to point, 5*4: inches; 

 tarsus, 2 -5 inches ; middle toe, with claw, 2-75 inches. 



Note. — In the " Cat, Birds N.Z.," Hutton, Colonial Museum, Welling-ton, 

 1871, the compiler appears anxious to refer the new species to A. maxima^ 

 "Verr., on the strength of a foot and tarsus of a very large species of Apteryx, 

 the plumage and other characteristics of which are unknown. It is there 

 stated that the bird to which the said tarsus and foot pertained, was as large 

 as a turkey, and weighed nearly 14 lbs. Now for A. Haastii, we cannot 

 claim the possession of such grand proportions, both the specimens of the new 

 species, described in this paper, are equalled, sometimes excelled, by fine 

 examples of A. Aiostralis, Shaw, which, in the flesh, would not exceed 71b. ; 

 this, an outside weight, is given on the authority of the collector, who has 

 literally slain his thousands of Apterygidce, and through whose exertions 

 colonial and foreign museums have been supplied with examples of the Middle 

 Island A2)terygidce. — Nov. 23. 



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