INTBODUCTION. 



xm 







I have referred to certain superficial characters ; and for the purposes of our argument we 

 need not at present go beyond these. The Apteryx, then, I take to be the most specialised type 

 of its kind — an extreme form of degeneracy, using that term in its Darwinian sense. But, besides 

 Apteryx australis, there are five, if not six, other species, more or less distinct the one from the 

 other, but all closely allied in every respect, size and colour being almost the only distinguishing 

 characters. I will enumerate these species, with the ascertained range of each. Apteryx australis, 

 already mentioned, inhabits the southernmost parts of the South Island; Apteryx mantelli, 

 Bartlett, and Apteryx bulleri, Sharpe, are spread over various parts of the North Island; 

 Apteryx oweni, Gould, is met with in the wooded country in the northern and eastern portions of 

 the South Island ; Apteryx haasti, Potts, in the Heaphy Eanges and further south ; Apteryx 

 occidentalism Eothschild, on the western slopes of the Southern Alps, and, curiously enough, in 

 the Tararua Eanges on the west coast of the North Island ; and, lastly, Apteryx lawryi, Eoths- 

 child, on Stewart Island. 



Mr. Walter Eothschild, who owns the largest collection of Apteryges in the world, has, after 

 mature consideration, decided to separate the spotted grey Kiwis into two species — Apteryx 

 oiveni, Gould, and Apteryx occiclentalis, Eothschild. Of the latter he possessed for years a living 

 example, obtained in the neighbourhood of Milford Sound, nearly as large as Apteryx haasti and 

 very different in appearance from Apteryx oiveni, having banded plumage, a dark head, and 

 blackish-grey feet. To this species he refers Mr. Morgan Carkeek's example from the Tararua 



the peculiarities of structure, colour, distribution, and habits of New Zealand birds serve to illustrate the theory of 

 Natural Selection, and often to afford very strong arguments in its favour. The address is very clear and forcible, full of 

 interesting facts and suggestive observations, and will be read with interest by all naturalists. One or two points only 

 call for any critical observation. Sir Walter Buller objects to the Apteryx being classed by Mr. Wallace as among 

 * the lowest birds,' because he says it is really ' an extremely specialised form.' But surely the Batitae are lower than 

 the Carinatae, and the Apteryx is so specialised as to be almost the least bird-like of the Batitae. If it is not to 

 be classed among the lowest existing birds, where are they to be found? " 



It will be seen, on referring to what I said, that what I objected to was the placing of the Kiwi among the lowest 

 forms of bird-life " in the sense implied." In the sense now used by Mr. Wallace, I admit, of course, that the Kiwi as 

 a Batite form comes at the end of the chain in our earlier system of classification ; but, as I understand it, that is a 

 very different point to the one I was discussing. In accordance with that system, and having regard to their natural 

 affinities, I placed the group of Kiwis at the very end of my ' Birds of New Zealand,' but that is in no way inconsistent 

 with my argument as to Apteryx being a highly specialised form. Writing of this bird, the late Professor Owen said : 

 " Here we have a true bird, exhibiting a remarkable modification of the whole ornithic structure, in reference to 

 exclusively terrestrial life and nocturnal habits ; and we learn from this adherence to a typical organisation, in a 

 very rare exception, that the teleological conclusions respecting the typical construction, as it is manifested in the 

 general rule, are in no way affected by such an exception, because the modification of one part necessarily affects that 

 of many others, perhaps of the whole body. If, for example, the fixation and structure of the lungs require a broad 

 sternum and concomitant modifications of the coracoid and scapula for the mechanical part of the respiratory process, 

 then it may be more convenient for the levator of the humerus to rise below that bone from the sternum, and act in the 

 due direction by a modification of its course, although the locomotion of the bird may in no way be facilitated by the 

 aggregation of muscular substance beneath the centre of gravity, nor the size of the levator be such as to render its 

 particular position a matter of any consequence in regard to that centre/' 



Professor Newton, in his admirable article on ' Birds ' in the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' referring to the 

 extraordinary development of our Batitae, says : " If we take the birds alone, and compare the two subclasses into 

 which the existing or recent members of the class are divided, we find the Australian region remarkable for its ornithic 

 singularity. The smaller of these two subclasses, the Batitae, contains six very natural groups — which might well 

 be called orders — including, according to the most exaggerated computation of their number, less than forty 

 species, while the large subclass, the Carinatae, comprehends some ten thousand species." In a footnote he adds : " If 

 it be true, as seems to be most likely the case, that Dinornis and its allies were absolutely devoid of wings, we should 

 in them have a divergence from the normal ornithic type which is altogether unique in the whole class, and for 

 its singularity might well be set off against the multifariousness exhibited by the Didelphia" — one of the subclasses of 

 Mammals characteristic of the Australian region. 



