Notes upon some Rare New Zealand Birds. 73 
Walter Buller of the observations of one of his collectors, Mr Marklund, who 
gives a most interesting account of his studies of Kiwi life on Stewart Island, 
but it is too long for full reproduction here. He mentions that he generally 
found a pair of birds together in one hole, sometimes accompanied by a single 
young one. On one occasion he found five birds inhabiting an extensive 
chamber. 
The old birds often make a stubborn resistance, and the first time his dog 
tackled one of them he got his foreleg ripped up about six inches by the bird’s 
claws. 
He says: “The favourite feeding ground of A. australis on Stewart Island 
is the summit of Table Hill, rising to an elevation of 2300 feet, which is 
covered with grass and stunted vegetation. In the day-time they descend 
about 500 feet, in order to camp in the bush, the summit not affording 
sufficient covert. He has never found any on the western slope of Table 
Hill below a level of 1000 feet; but on the eastern side the Kiwis go right 
down to the plain, or practically to the level of the sea. He has found them 
to inhabit holes among the roots of the Mutton-bird Woods.” 
Apteryx mantelli. 
The skin of the very young chick came from the North Island, and was 
obtained by a correspondent of Mr James Dall. He told me that, although 
he knew the North Island, he had not been able to visit it for some years 
and, as he was getting old, he did not feel fit to continue going on long and 
arduous expeditions. 
In some of his letters, he sent me a good deal of information about 
A, mantelli and the mode of its capture, but as he had received it second 
hand, I am not quite sure as to its reliability, so do not publish it. 
This bird is closely allied to A. australis, and the Hon. Walter Rothschild, 
Ph.D., sometimes names it A. australis mantelli. It is confined to the 
Northern Island of New Zealand, and it supplied most of the living Kiwis sent 
to this country, as well as a larger number of skins than any other of the 
genus, with perhaps the exception of A. owent. It is from the observation of 
this bird while in captivity that much of our information regarding the habits 
of the genus has been derived. 
Sir Walter Buller, in the Birds of New Zealand, 2nd ed., vol. i. page 315, 
states: “The male bird alone performs the labour of incubation and takes 
upon himself the entire charge of the young till they are old enough to shift 
for themselves. The female, without any assistance from her mate, digs or 
scoops out a nesting-place,—usually adapting to her requirements an existing 
hole or cavity in the ground—forms a rude nest, and deposits two eggs.” 
