64 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
I am not sure that any other names that have been given to possible 
varieties of these birds will for long stand the test of scientific investigation. 
The late Professor Alfred Newton and Dr Hans Gadow, in their 
Dictionary of Birds, published in 1896, page 496, Note 2, say: “A. 
maxima (from Stewart Island), A. haasti, A. mollis and A. fusca have 
also been indicated, but proof of their validity has yet to be adduced.” 
This shows that the learned Professor had some doubt in his mind regarding 
A. haasti even in 1896. 
However, there were so few specimens known at that time, that in all 
probability he had never had the opportunity of examining a skin or skeleton 
of A. haasti. — 
In Novitates Zoologice, vol. vi. p. 366, the Hon. Walter Rothschild, Ph.D., 
says: “Sir Walter Buller, having received a large female from Stewart 
Island, considered it different from A. australis, and applied to it the 
name of A. maxima. This name not being applicable, I named it 
A. lawryi in honour of Sir Walter Lawry Buller. Having now before me 
a good series of A. australis from the South (or middle) Island, as well as 
from Stewart Island, I find that, although the largest females happen to 
be from Stewart Island, they cannot be separated—the majority of the 
specimens being equally large from both localities. In addition to this, 
we find similar variations in size among A. australis mantelli from the 
North Island.” 
Apteryx mollis appears to have originated (Potts, Zrans. and Proc., New 
Zealand Inst. vol. v. p. 196, 1873) from an albino specimen of 
A. oweni obtained at Martin’s Bay, West Coast. 
Apteryx fusca (1875, Rowley in Ornith. Mise., vol. 11. p. 8) named from a 
dark-coloured specimen of A. oweni by mistake. 
Newton and Gadow say (Dictionary of Birds, p. 496): “The Kiwis 
form a group of the sub-class Ratitw, to which the rank of an Order has been 
fitly assigned, as they differ in many important particulars from any of 
the other existing forms of Ratite birds. The most obvious feature the 
Apteryges afford is the presence of a back toe, while the extremely aborted 
condition of the wings, the position of the nostrils—almost at the tip of the 
bill—and the absence of an aftershaft in the feathers, are characters nearly 
as manifest, and others not less determinative though more recondite will be 
found on examination. The Kiwis are peculiar to New Zealand.” 
The Kiwi was first described by Shaw, and figured in 1813 (Nat. 
Miscellany, pls. 1057, 1058) from a single specimen obtained on the South 
Coast of New Zealand. It afterwards formed part of the bird collection 
