24 



about 3,000 feet. At a higher point he found the species comparatively abundant, and he also 

 met with it occasionally below the snow-line, frequenting many places in the bush free from 

 undergrowth. 



Some time before leaving the Colony, I had an opportunity of examining some good 

 examples of this species procured by an English tourist from a bird-dealer at Nelson. I 

 remarked that the bill was very similar to that of Apteryx owehi, although the plumage, as already 

 recorded, bore a general resemblance to that of Apteryx haasti, but was paler. The legs were dark- 

 coloured, in which respect it agreed with the latter ; and the claws were horn-coloured. 



I think that Mr. Eothschild is in error in stating (Ibis, 1893, p. 575) that " on the west coast 

 of the South and North Islands, from one end to the other, occurs a grey Apteryx, which has hitherto 

 been confounded with the typical A. oweni." The only recorded instance, so far as I am aware, 

 of its occurrence in the North Island is that mentioned above, although I have very little doubt 

 that its range extends along the summits of the mountains flanking Cook's Strait. Whether it 

 occurs, further north, is a mere matter of speculation. It has never been recorded, and the 

 Maoris do not know of it. 



It is fortunate that there is a good representative series of Apteryx occidentalis in the Tring 

 Museum ; for the opportunities of studying it are becoming diminished, year by year. To my 

 own testimony, I may be allowed to add that of the late Professor Kirk, F.L.S., a very keen observer. 

 Writing of that and the allied forms, he says : "All alike are extinct, or nearly extinct, over large 

 districts in which they were formerly so plentiful, that explorers and surveyors calculated on their 

 furnishing a considerable portion of the food-supply ; but this is now entirely out of the question, 

 and every year brings the date of their complete extinction appreciably closer. Their supply 

 of food is indirectly reduced by the rabbits, which in some cases have invaded their haunts ; their 

 eggs are destroyed by Wekas and rats ; and the adult birds are killed wholesale by stoats, 

 weasels, wild cats, and occasionally by dogs which have escaped from domestication. The 

 complete extinction of these interesting birds by agencies now in operation will not extend over a 

 lengthened period." 



The effect, too, of an indiscriminate introduction of foreign birds is to accelerate the 

 threatened wiping-out of an avifauna admitted to be one of the most interesting in the world. 

 Many of the species have already disappeared ; a still larger number are, so to speak, on the 

 border-land and will ere long be extinct ; whilst even the commonest species exhibit year by year 

 a steady diminution in numbers. What the result will be in twenty years from the present time, 

 it is not difficult to predict. 



I have had an opportunity of examining two eggs of this species, received from the West 

 Coast, the male bird having been taken from the nest when sitting on the eggs. They are 

 broadly elliptical and pale greenish-white. The larger of the two measures 4"6 in. in length by 

 2*5 in. in breadth. The other egg is about one-sixteenth of an inch shorter, and is much 

 soiled by contact with the birds' feet. 



