30 



sufficient series of specimens to trace a gradation from the dappled brown plumage of Apteryx 

 liaasti to the dappled grey plumage of Apteryx oiveni. * 



A pair brought home alive by Mr. Bills in 1873-4 were purchased by the late Mr. Dawson 

 Eowley, of Chichester House, for £100, and these birds (afterwards figured in the ' Ornithological 

 Miscellany ') are still in the Eowley Collection at Brighton. Where these came from I do not 

 know, but the whole of my specimens were obtained in the wooded spurs at the northern extremity 

 of the Southern Alps, known as the Heaphy Kanges. 



As far as my experience goes, this species may at all ages be distinguished from Apteryx 

 oiveni by its perfectly black hallux, or hind claw. 



Specimens of Apteryx liaasti are still rare in collections. There are two in the Canterbury 

 Museum, where they were placed twenty -five years ago, one becoming the type of the species. The 

 Tring Museum possesses a remarkably fine series. I have presented specimens to the Cambridge 

 University Museum, and to Wellington, Auckland, Hawke's Bay and Wanganui Museums. 

 There is a good series in the beautiful collection of New Zealand birds in the Liverpool Museum ; 

 and I have presented specimens to the Zoological Museums at Berlin and Dresden. So far as I 

 am aware, there is only a single specimen in America, and this is in the Niagara Falls Museum, 

 in the State of New York, where it was sent by me as an exchange. Mr. J. D. Enys, of Penryn, 

 Cornwall, possesses a pair (beautifully mounted by Messrs. Bowland Ward & Co., of Piccadilly), 

 and Mr. Charles Storey, of Lancaster, possesses another pair. There is also a pair in the 

 British Museum. 



To Mr. Kothschild's paper, already mentioned, Mr. Frank Beddard, F.B.S., has added some 

 valuable notes on the anatomy of the genus Apteryx (Novitates Zoologicae, vol. vi., p. 395) from 

 which I extract the following : — 



" The general muscular anatomy of Apteryx has been described by Owen ; Garrod dealt 

 subsequently with certain muscles of the thigh, and with the deep flexor tendons ; Furbringer has 

 carefully gone into the shoulder muscles of the wing, correcting Owen in several particulars ; 

 finally, Gradow's book upon birds contains the bulk of what is known concerning the musculature 

 of Apteryx .... Apteryx oweni perhaps differs more from the rest than they do among 

 themselves : it is to be distinguished by its smaller size, the character of its plumage, the three 

 open rings of the trachea below, and the great length of the pre-pubic process, besides possibly a 

 number of minor points. Apteryx liaasti, although looking like a larger edition of A. oiveni, differs 

 in the last two features just mentioned. Apteryx mantelli and A. australis are closely allied to 

 each other, and come very much nearer to A. liaasti than to A. oiveni .... The general 

 anatomy of Apteryx has been apparently so exhaustively treated of that I had hardly hoped to 

 discover any new points. I have, however, been able to ascertain two new facts of some little 

 classificatory importance. The first of these is the existence of an oil gland hitherto overlooked, 

 a feature in which this genus appears to differ from all other Struthious birds ; the second matter 

 is the presence of definite intrinsic syringeal muscles, not unique among the Struthiones, but new 

 to Apteryx so far as recorded fact enables me to judge." 



* This view having been published, Mr. Dall wrote to me :— " I don't agree with the supposition in regard to the 

 divergence of Apteryx haasti from A. oweni, as the large worm is found on the eastern watershed, and there are plenty 

 of large worms in the alluvial flats around Collingwood, although not quite so large as the other. There are three 

 distinct kinds of earthworm on the Gouland Downs and Heaphy. I have heard of them being five feet in length, 

 when stretched out fully, but these are exceptional ones." 





