BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 7 



from the gape to the end of the upper mandible 5'6 inches ; upper mandible 

 overreaching 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 25 inches ; middle toe, with claw, 

 2'75 inches. 



" Note. — In the ' Catalogue of the Birds of New Zealand ' (Hutton, 

 Colonial Museum, Wellington, 1871), the compiler appears anxious to refer 

 the new species to Apteryx 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. australis, Shaw, which, in the flesh, 

 would not exceed 7 lbs. ; this, an outside weight, is given on the authority of 

 the collector, who has literally slain his thousands of Apterygidse, and 

 through whose exertions colonial and foreign museums have been supplied 

 with examples of the Middle-Island Apterygidse. — Nov. 23." 



Mr. Potts, in the ' Zoologist,' S. S. No. 105, June 1874, p. 4014, says as 

 follows : — " Haast's Kiwi. — During a visit to the west coast last summer 

 the localities were pointed out to the writer whence the specimens now in 

 the Canterbury Museum were procured. One was found in the bush far 

 up the Okarita river, the other in the dense bush between the eastern shore 

 of Lake Mapourika and the snowy range of which Mount Cook is monarch. 

 Mr. Docherty stated that both of these birds appeared wilder than Apteryx 

 australis, and made somewhat more resistance during their capture." 

 He adds, in the 'Zoologist,' S. S. No. 108, September 1874, p. 4158, "I 

 have much pleasure in communicating the fact of the occurrence of this 



