57 



no specific difference can be drawn between 0. earli and 0. fjreyi" But, later on (March 13, 1902), 

 he wrote as follows :— " I have just got another Weka skin (0. earli) from Stewart Island, and I 

 agree with you that it is different from the North Island bird. I also agree with you that hybrids 

 are very rare in a wild state." He adds : " Ocydromus liectori differs from 0. australis in its 

 uniformly larger size, but its colour is very variable. It is distinctly sub-alpine. Ocyclromiis finschi 

 I now look upon as a hybrid between 0. brachypterus and 0. australis:' 



My view is that the so-called 0. liectori (which is probably distinct) is the same as 0. troglodytes, 

 and that the so-called Ocydromus finschi, instead of being a hybrid, is the immature state of 

 Ocyclromiis brachypterus. I stated my conviction on this point (with the type of Hutton's 

 0. finschi, received back from America, before me) in ' the Birds of New Zealand ' (vol. ii., p. 

 113), and what evidence I have since been able to collect has only strengthened that view. 

 Indeed, I thought Captain Hutton himself had adopted it (see footnote to my account of 

 Ocydromus greyi, vol. II., p. 105) ; but it cannot be denied that the group is a very puzzling- 

 one. 



An anonymous correspondent in the Lijttleton Times (May '20th, 1903), writing of this 

 species, says : 



When enclosed in small yards they become tamer than domestic fowls, thrusting their heads through the 

 meshes of the wire and feeding from the hand. Mr. Smith, in 1885, endeavoured to procure hybrids 

 between the Weka and the domestic game fowls, and so settle the question of crossing. He raised a nest of 

 young Wekas, with one domestic well-bred game cock. He was not successful in attaining his object, but 

 his experiments showed that the Weka's power of laying eggs is surprising. One bird laid for the first time 

 on August 4th, and by August 20th it had produced eleven eggs. It then discontinued laying for nine days. 

 After that, it continued to lay, on an average, every two days, missing a day or two occasionally. Two of 

 the birds contracted the pernicious practice of eating their own eggs. The eggs, when cooked, were found 

 to be slightly inferior to those of the domestic fowl. He states that the Weka, in its natural state, mates 

 only once, and remains permanently paired, unless by some means the pair are separated. Writing last week, 

 Mr. Smith states that during the past three years he has renewed the experiments, but still, up to the 

 present, without success. By carefully feeding the Wekas with suitable food, he has no difficulty in getting 

 them to lay from two to two-and-a-half dozen eggs each in a season. Before laying they generally utter a 

 peculiar call, and then they must be shut off until they lay. ' If by any possibility hybrids could be 

 obtained,' he says, ' their good qualities for laying, which appear to exist on the side of their wild parents, 

 would probably mark the origin in our country of a useful and hardy strain of domestic fowls.' 



As all experiments of the kind have hitherto failed in New Zealand, it is interesting to record 

 that, quite recently, a hybrid has been produced by a male Ocydromus brachypterus and a female 

 0. earli in the Zoological Gardens at Begent's Bark. Mr. B. I. Bocock (the Superintendent 

 of the Gardens) writes to me* on June 30th : — 



" Had it not been for the hatching of one of the eggs there would have been no proof of the fertility of 

 the two species. The hen has laid a good number of eggs this season, but the two birds have destroyed 

 them, almost without exception. This is a well-known habit of theirs, I believe, in captivity. The solitary 

 young one is thriving well." 



* After getting this note I took an early opportunity of visiting the Society's Gardens for the purpose of inspecting 

 the hybrid ; and the Superintendent courteously had the bird caught, so that I might make a close inspection. The 

 male parent is a very robust and remarkably tame example of Ocydromus brachypterus, obtained from the Snares, 

 where this species was, no doubt, introduced by the early sealers, to eke out their subsistence. The female parent is 

 a small and very shy example of the true Ocydromus earli, from the South Island. The young bird which, at the time 

 I saw it, was fully fledged, favours in appearance the male parent, even to the whitish chin, but it lacks the light brown 

 spots on the upper surface, which are so conspicuous in the young of 0. brachypterus as to have induced Captain Hutton 

 to set up a new species {0. finschi). 



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