FEATHERS. 



Much stress has been laid upon the harshness and softness of plumage in 

 the seA'eral species of Apteryges— so much so, that two forms are attempted 

 to be specifically differentiated thereby ; and one person goes the length of 

 saying he can distinguish Apteryx australis (with soft plumage) from A. 

 mantelli, the North-Island bird (with harsh), having his eyes shut. In a 

 series of these and others, I have tried to establish this difference, and am 

 bound to say I do find it, but only in a slight degree. Dr. Duller says, in his 

 ' Birds of New^ Zealand,' that of the two specimens of Sceloglaux alhifacies in 

 the Canterbury Museum, the one from the North Island is darker than the 

 one from the South Island. In this case appears a slight climatal and local 

 variation, which may be constant, but hardly is of importance enough to 

 establish a species. Mr. Potts remarks (' Transactions of the New-Zealand 

 Institute,' vol. v. 1872, p. 193) : — "Specimens " (A. owenii) " obtained south 

 of the Waitaroa river, in Westland, present some differences of plumage by 

 which they can readily be distinguished from skins in the Canterbury 

 Museum, which were obtained in the neighbourhood of Hokitika. The 

 birds from the northerly districts have a more flocculent plumage, 

 lighter in tone than those which are found in the country lying under the 

 shadow of Mount Cook." Now Dr. Finsch pronounces the harshness of 

 plumage in a series to have "' different degrees observable." He regards the 

 difference as " only that of a race or local form " (' Transactions of the New- 

 Zealand Institute,' 1872, vol. v. p. 212). I have myself observed this 



