Ordee APTEEYGIFOEMES.] 



[Family APTEEYGID^. 



Class AYES. 



Sub-class PAL^OGNATILE. 

 APTERYX LAWRYI. 



(STEWAET-ISLAND KIWI.) 



] 



I 



Apteryx lawryi, Rothschild, Ibis, 1893, p. 575 ; Buller, Trans. N. Z. Inst., vol. xxix., 



p. 204 (1896). 



I have thought it best to commence with the largest, the last discovered, and the least-known 

 of this singular group of wingless birds ; and I now propose to give its full history, so far as 

 that is at present known to me. 



The first example that I saw of this fine species, was the one exhibited at the Dunedin 

 Exhibition in 1890 — a very large female bird. I did not know at that time whence it had come, 

 but I saw at a glance that it was distinguishable from the other known forms. Owing to its great 

 size I naturally referred it* to Apteryx maximus, Verr., of which no description had been published. 

 I purchased this bird immediately after its death, soon after the close of the Exhibition, and sent 

 the skin — beautifully prepared by Mr. Sparkes, of the Canterbury Museum, N. Z. — to my friend, 

 the Hon. Walter Eothschild, M.P., and it is now in his superb zoological museum at Tring. 



Finding that this Kiwi had come from Stewart Island, I engaged Mr. 0. Marklund, who 

 was residing there, to collect a good series for me, which he accordingly did. These I shared 

 with Mr. Eothschild, who described the bird as a distinct species in a paper communicated to 

 the ' Ibis ' for 1893 (p. 575), from which I extract the following : — 



" Apteryx maximus is almost a fictitious species, though I am inclined to agree with Prof. 

 Hutton that it was only an overgrown A. haasti. The name was published originally by 

 Bonaparte in the ' Comtes Eendus,' xliii., p. 841, taken from an unpublished manuscript of Jules 

 Verreaux, and then Prof. Hutton described a foot in his ' Catalogue of the Birds of New 

 Zealand,' and ascribed it to this species. Both references, however, distinctly refer to a bird 

 from the South Island. In 1891 Sir Walter Buller finally announced that he had discovered the 

 true A. maximus on Stewart Island, and I am fortunate in possessing an entire series from his 

 collection ; but I most emphatically say that this species cannot be A. maximus of Verreaux, and 

 therefore I have much pleasure in naming it Apteryx lawryi, after Sir W. Lawry Buller. 



" Sir W. Buller fully described this bird before the Wellington Scientific Society. All that 

 I shall add is, therefore, that, though the differences between it and A. australis are very slight, 

 they are apparently constant, owing, no doubt, to the isolation of the species." 



At a meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club, held on June 21st, 1893, Mr. Eothschild 

 exhibited nine living specimens of the various species of Apteryx, together with nearly 100 skins 

 (including a series of A. lawryi). This was in illustration of his " Notes on the Genus Apteryx," 

 in anticipation of the complete monograph on the subject which he had then prepared and hoped 

 soon to publish. This able and exhaustive memoir was not produced till 1899 ('Novitates 



* Trans. N. Z. Inst., vol. xxiii., pp. 602-603. 



