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VIII.  Description,  with  some  additional  particulars,  of  the  Apteryx  Australis  of  Shaw. 
By  William  Yarrell,  Esq.,  F.L.S.  Z.S. 
Communicated  June  25,  1833. 
A  SINGLE  specimen  of  this  very  singular  bird,  first  described  and  figured  by  Dr.  Shaw 
in  the  24th  volume  of  the  '  Naturalist's  Miscellany,'  under  the  name  of  the  ferruginous- 
grey  Apteryx,  was  brought  from  the  south  coast  of  New  Zealand  by  Captain  Barcley, 
of  the  ship  Providence,  about  the  year  1812.  By  Captain  Barcley  the  specimen  was 
presented  to  Dr.  Shaw,  through  the  kind  offices  of  W.  Evans,  Esq.,  who  was  the 
mutual  friend  of  both. 
The  notices  of  this  bird,  which  have  since  appeared  in  the  '  Manuel '  of  M.  Temminck, 
(2nd  ed.  Anal.  p.  cxiv.  1820)  ;  in  the  continuation  of  Shaw's  '  General  Zoology,'  by 
Mr.  Stephens  (vol.  xiii.  part  1.  1825)  ;  in  the  *  Manuel'  of  M.  Lesson  (vol.  ii.  p.  211. 
1828)  ;  in  the  '  General  History  of  Birds  '  by  Dr.  Latham  (vol.  x.  p.  395.  1828) ;  and  in 
the  2nd  edition  of  the  '  Regne  Animal'  (vol.  i.  p.  498,  note.  1829)  ; — have  all  been 
derived  from  the  original  description  first  named ;  but  very  different  opinions  have 
been  expressed  on  the  subject  of  the  bird  itself. 
M.  Temminck,  in  his  '  Analyse  du  Systeme  General  d'Ornithologie,'  has  instituted 
an  order,  which  he  has  called  Inertes,  for  the  reception  of  the  Dodo  and  the  Apteryx  ; 
two  birds  differing  decidedly  from  each  other  in  their  beaks,  but  in  reference  to  their 
imperfect  wings,  as  also  in  the  nature  of  their  external  covering,  having  obvious  relation 
to  the  species  included  in  his  order  Cursores.  But  the  situation  chosen  for  this  order 
Inertes,  at  the  extreme  end  of  his  systematic  arrangement,  leads  me  to  infer  that 
M.  Temminck  considered  as  imaginary  the  subjects  for  which  it  was  formed'. 
M.  Lesson  seems  to  have  still  less  faith  in  this  bird,  and  at  page  211,  as  before  re- 
ferred to,  has  the  following  paragraph  : — "  L' Apteryx  de  M.  Temminck  ne  serait-il  pas 
fonde  sur  les  pieces  de  dronte  [Dodo]  conservees  au  Museum  de  Londres  ?"  M.  Lesson 
appears  not  to  have  been  aware  at  the  time,  that  at  page  210  of  his  '  Manuel,'  he 
had  described,  as  common  in  the  forests  of  New  Zealand,  under  the  name  Kivi  Kivi, 
the  bird  whose  existence  he  questioned  at  page  21 L 
By  Baron  Cuvier  this  bird  has  only  been  referred  to  in  a  note  in  the  '  Regne  Animal,' 
(2nd  ed.  vol.  i.  p.  498.)  and  not  admitted  in  the  body  of  the  wwk. 
'  Illiger,  in  his  '  Prodromus,'  1811,  instituted  his  Order  Inepti,  for  the  reception  of  the  Dodo  alone,  (the 
Apteryx  being  then  unknown,)  but  arranged  it  immediately  before  his  Cursores,  which  contained  the  Struthious 
birds. 
