72 



SOUTHERN APTERYX. 



much within, and so high up as to be useless, with 

 no apparent membrane between the toes : claws strong, 

 sharp, very little bent ; the inner one almost straight. 

 Inhabits New Zealand : brought from the south coast 

 by Captain Barclay, of the ship Providence, who pre- 

 sented it to Dr. Shaw.'' 



Latham, who examined this bird with Shaw, makes 

 the following memoranda : " No appearance of nos- 

 trils was to be detected, but a furrow ran the whole 

 length (of the beak), at the end of which were two 

 minute holes, into which a bristle being introduced, 

 passed quite up to the base, and no doubt were the 

 nostrils." — " The form of the foot is not greatly 

 unlike that of the Dodo, and in the above specimen 

 the toes were not connected by an intervening mem- 

 brane ; yet from certain inequalities on the sides it is 

 possible that there may have been one, and that it 

 had been eaten away by insects." 



