Notes upon some Rare New Zealand Birds, 65 
of the thirteenth Lord Derby, and is now with the rest of that collection 
in the museum at Liverpool. J¢ 1s a skin of A. australis, As some doubted 
the existence of such a bird, Lord Derby, on 12th February 1833, exhibited 
his unique specimen at a meeting of the Zoological Society, London, A 
few months later, Yarrell submitted a complete description of it (Zvans. 
Ago secs vol. i...p. (1, pl. 10). 
In 1838, Professor Owen published a monograph in Trans. Zool. Soc., 
vol. ii. p. 257 ; vol. iii. p. 277. 
Shortly after 1847, another Apteryx was discovered to which Gould 
gave the name of A. oweni (Trans. Zool. Soc., vol. iii. p. 379, pl. 57). 
In 1850, Mr Bartlett, after careful examination, expressed the opinion 
that differences existed between certain examples, which had all been 
considered as belonging to A. australis. His investigation led him to think 
that two species had been confounded. To the second of these, the third 
of the species, he gave the name of Mantellr (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1850, 
p. 274). Shortly afterwards, it was discovered that to the new form the 
most of the specimens already obtained belonged. Professor Newton states 
that in 1850 only two specimens of A. australis were known. In other 
_words, most of the specimens had been obtained in the Northern Island, 
to which A. mantelli appears to be restricted ; just as A. australis is believed 
to be only found in the Southern Island and Stewart Island. 
The first live specimen to reach Britain arrived in 1851, and was a specimen 
of A. mantelli, which was presented to the Zoological Society of London by 
the Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand. Careful observation was kept of 
its habits in captivity, and the results published by Newton and Wolley 
(Zoologist, pp. 3409, 3605): “In the year 1859 she laid her first egg, and has 
continued to lay one or two more every year since that time. In 1865,a 
male bird was presented by Henry Slade, Esq. During the last year these 
birds showed symptoms of a desire to pair. This was known by the loud 
calling of the male, which was answered by the female in a much lower and 
shorter note. They were particularly noisy during the night, but altogether 
silent in the day-time. On 2nd January the first egg was laid, and for a 
day or more the female remained on the egg; but as soon as she quitted the 
nest the male bird took to it, and remained constantly sitting. On the 
7th of February the second egg was laid, the female leaving the nest as 
soon as the egg was deposited.” “The male continued to sit in the most 
persevering manner until 25th of April, at which time he was much 
exhausted, and left the nest. On examining the eggs I found no traces of 
young birds” (A. D. Bartlett, Proc. Zool. Society, 1868, p. 329). 
Sir W. Buller (in his Birds of New Zealand, 2nd ed., vol. ii. p. 313) 
VOL, XIX. E 
