68 



can value a bird for its own sake. So I replied to Dr. Young to send it along ; and I announced 

 the receipt of his telegram to the meeting of the Otago Institute on the 9th August, where 

 the news was received with very great interest. Mr. Hamilton took the trouble to travel to 

 Invercargill next day in order to bring back the bird, and to learn the facts of the capture 

 but in the meantime it had been despatched to Dunedin, and reached me in capital con- 

 dition. It was at once handed over to Mr. Jennings. The skin was properly and skilfully 

 cured, so much of the skeleton as was possible was removed and dried, and the viscera are 

 preserved in spirit. Mr. Jennings, it may be mentioned, preserved the Dresden skin, so far 

 as it was possible to do so after its unskilful treatment by its captor. . . . 



But, although the skin of the Takahe is very rare, its bones are less rare and less ex- 

 pensive. The Otago Museum is fortunate enough to possess a nearly complete skeleton 

 including the only skull on public exhibition in the colony, or anywhere else indeed, except in 

 London and Dresden. Other bones exist in private collections, but they are by no means 

 numerous. Another feature of interest lies in the fact that the Takahe (Notornis) exists 

 nowhere else in the world except in the South Island of New Zealand. The name Notornis 

 mantelli was bestowed by the late Sir Eichard Owen, on a few bones discovered in a fossilised 

 condition in the North Island — viz., a part of a skull, a jaw, and a leg-bone. The examination 

 of the skeleton of the second bird, subsequently captured in the South Island, led ornithologists 

 to conclude that both the living and the extinct bird belonged to the same species. But, later 

 on, careful measurements of the bones in the Dresden • Museum by Dr. A. B. Meyer, and of 

 the bones in the Otago Museum by the late Professor Parker, as well as of bones obtained by 

 Mr. Hamilton, render this identity very doubtful. . . . 



It may be that the fossil bones, imperfect as they were, belonged to a male bird, whilst 

 the remaining specimens are females, but this is extremely improbable. At present we do not 

 know for certain whether there is any difference in the colouration or in the size of the two 

 sexes; one in the British Museum, according to Sir W. Buller, is more brightly coloured 

 than the Dresden specimen, which he believes to be a female. But no anatomical examina- 

 tion of any of the previously obtained birds was possible for the purpose of deciding the sex, 

 and the only definite fact is that this fourth specimen is a female, and that it agrees in size 

 and colouration with the Dresden specimen. From analogy with our other native birds it is 

 quite probable that a different species of Notornis inhabited each of the two Islands — that 

 of the North Island is extinct, that of the South Island will become so shortly."* 



I agree with Mr. Fenwick in opinion that the last specimen is the finest of all four 

 known ones, the colours being richer ; also that the bird is better mounted than any of the 

 others. But Mr. Jennings, who is a very skilful taxidermist, had the advantage of mounting his 

 bird from the fresh specimen. The two examples in the British Museum (since placed in the bird 

 cabinets by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe and sheltered from light) were set up by Mr. Bartlett from rough 

 skins prepared by sealers ; whilst in the case of the Dresden specimen the taxidermist laboured 

 under this further disadvantage, that the whole of the bones of the head, legs and toes had been 

 previously extracted for the purpose of restoring the Museum skeleton, which is perhaps even more 

 valuable than the skin. 



The circumstances under which this fourth example was obtained are thus recorded in the 



* In the Zoologist for 1889 (pp. 301-6), there is a long article by Mr. James Park, F.G.S., on the survival of this 

 bird in western Otago. This gentleman describes his experiences during a geological and botanical excursion into the 

 Wanaka country in 1881, which led him to the conclusion that Notornis mantelli at that time still existed in that part of 

 the country. Sir James Hector, however, and others familiar with that part of the South Island, are of opinion that the 

 loud booming sound heard by Mr. Park was produced by the Kakapo and not by Notornis, of which, it may be added, 

 the explorer never obtained an actual view. 



