OWEN'S APTERYX 



been bequeathed to it by his lordship. For many years 

 (nearly twenty) this unique specimen was lost sight of, 

 and few naturalists at home or abroad believed in the 

 existence of a bird of the kind. Its history remained 

 in this state until the year 1833, when the late Mr. 

 Yarrell published, in the Zoological Society's Transactions, 

 •A paper giving all that was at that time known respecting 

 this remarkable bird. On June 8, 1867, Mr. Gould 

 brought before the meeting of the Zoological Society a 

 skin of a second species of this interesting genus, and 

 this he described and named, as a just compliment to 

 Professor Owen, under the name Apteryx Owcnii. In 

 1850 the late Dr. Mantell received from his son, Mr. 

 Walter Mantell, the skin of an apteryx; this he placed 

 in my hands, with a request to examine and report vipon 

 it. I at once pronounced it to be unlike any of the speci- 

 mens of Apteryx australis in the British Museum or other 

 collection known by the name, and at once wrote to the 

 late Earl Derby, who kindly sent the original specimen 

 from Knowsley to London for the purpose of having it 

 compared with the specimen sent home by Mr. Walter 

 Mantell. Mr. Bartlett at once identified these two birds 

 as the same species, and at a meeting of the Zoological 

 Society, December 10, 1850, brought the subject forward, 

 and named the more common species (of which specimens 

 were found in the British and other museums) Apteryx 

 Mantelli, in compliment to that gentleman. 



The importance of observing and of collecting all the 

 evidence in our power respecting these singular and ex- 

 piring races of birds cannot be too frequently urged, for 

 doubtless in a few years hence the work of extermina- 

 tion will be complete. The mighty Dinornis and its 

 smaller allies are probably long since numbered with the 

 dead, and we are reduced to confine our observations of 



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