8 BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 



rare bird after a very long interval. Five very fine specimens, old and 

 young, have been lately obtained from the w^est coast : eflforts were made 

 to secure these much-prized specimens for the Canterbury Museum ; but 

 although a considerable sum was offered it was declined by the owner of 

 the skins. Till the present time the only known examples were the two 

 in the Canterbury Museum." 



Four of the above mentioned are now in my possession ; the fifth was 

 much torn by dogs, and was to be made a skeleton of. I have therefore 

 male and female adults and male and female young, all taken on the South 

 Island, at an altitude of 7000 feet above the level of the sea, thirty miles up 

 the Okarita river, in the mountains on the west coast. Received by me 

 in 1874. 



In this species I find the colour to be quite different from that of 

 Apteryx owenii. The trivial name of Large Grey Kiwi has been given to it ; 

 but though that is applicable to A. owenii, it is not to this ; there is no 

 grey about it. Large Brown Apteryx would have been more suitable, if 

 colour is mentioned. 



Dr. Haast's Apteryx evinces a much greater thickness in the metatarsal 

 segment of the leg than Apteryx australis, which it rivals in size, and perhaps 

 surpasses. 



Apteryx australis may be described as streaked in perpendicular lines, 

 while the marks in A. haastii are horizontal, and its spots or, more properly, 

 blotches are much bigger than those in A. owenii. The three species of New 

 Zealand (those, in fact, which will stand as species) differ much in colour. I 

 do not accept A. mantelli as a species, nor A. fuscus, — one of which, or what 

 I suppose to be A. fuscus, is now before me ; and I take it for a partial 

 melanism of A. owenii, than which it is much darker. 



In the adult female figured here the bill along the ridge is 5 inches 

 long, under the under mandible 5*25 ; tarsus 3 ; middle toe and claw 3"5. 



In a very large Apteryx australis, picked out of a series, I find the bill 

 along the ridge 5*5 inches long, the tarsus 3, middle toe and claw 25. 



