89 
states that, in 1862, during a visit to the Matukatuka river, he heard a singular booming noise which 
was followed by a shrill whistle. The same cries were afterwards heard by another exploring party, 
and he feels convinced that they came from some small species of Moa, of which there may yet be 
survivors in the six hundred square miles of “ unexplored interior.” 
In my former edition T said : — “ Although no examples of the Notornis have since been obtained, 
it does not necessarily follow that the species is absolutely extinct. The recluse habits of such a bird, 
as already pointed out by Mr. Gould, would account for its hitherto escaping notice in the only 
partially explored portions of the country ; and the following extract from a letter, addressed to me 
by Dr. Hector in December 1866,' would lead us to hope that at least one specimen more may yet be 
found to grace a shelf in the Colonial Museum : — ‘ At Motupipi, about three months ago, Mr. Gibson, 
who is a really good careful observer, a capital botanist, and a new comer to the country, saw a bird 
within a few feet of him, in tall swamp-grass, which, from his description, I have no doubt was a 
Notornis ! ! Pie had never seen the plate or description of the Notornis ; and as he knows the Pukeko 
[Porphyrio melanonotus) quite well, there is no other bird that would answer to his account. I am 
going back there, and will get further particulars about it.’ 
“ Dr. Hector likewise informs me that, during his exploration of the South-western portion of 
the Otago Province in 1861-62, he met with some traces of the Notornis near Thompson Sound and 
on the middle arm of the Anau Lake.” 
Since the above was written, another example has been obtained ; and as a special interest always 
attaches to a species on the verge of extinction, I will reproduce here portions of a paper on the 
subject which I I’ead before the Wellington Philosophical Institute on September 3, 1881: — 
The capture of a specimen of the rare Notornis mantelli in the South Island is an event of 
sufficient importance to warrant a special memoir in our ‘ Transactions,’ and I have therefore much 
pleasure, at the request of our President, in bringing before you this evening all the information I have 
been able to collect on the subject. 
I may here mention— and I do so with regret — that the specimen which I am about to describe 
is no longer in the colony, having been despatched by the ‘AVaitangi about three weeks ago for 
sale in England. It will be interesting to watch its ultimate fate ; hut as there are already two fine 
examples in the National Collection, it will most probably find its way into one of the continental or 
American museums *. Although we have failed to detain the prize, there is every reason to believe that 
the species still survives in the land, and that it will yet be added to the type collection in the Colonial 
Museum. It is a curious fact, illustrating the wide range of a bird supposed to be nearly extinct, 
that the three known examples have been obtained at localities nearly a hundred miles apart from 
each other, and over an interval of thirty-five years. As the species belongs to a gregarious family, 
and as the general character of its habitat is rough and inaccessible in the extreme, I think it may be 
fairly inferred that many yet survive to reward the future search of the Southern naturalist. 
The two fine specimens now in the British Museum (supposed to be male and female) were obtained 
through the exertions of our former President, the Hon. AV alter Mantell, after whom the bird was 
named. The first of these was captured alive in 1849 by a party of sealers at Duck Cove, on Resolu- 
tion Island, Dusky Sound ; the second was caught by the Maoris on Secretary Island, opposite to 
Deas Cove, Thompson Sound. 
The third specimen, to which I have now specially to refer, was recently obtained on what 
are called the “Bare-patch Plains” (between the Maruia and Upokororo rivers), on the eastern 
* The specimon was offered to public competition at Stevens’s llooms, in Covont Garden, and purchased for the Dresden 
Museum at £105, the representative of tho Cambridge Museum having unfortunately ceased his bidding at ^100. Its bones 
have since been described by Dr. Meyer, the Director of that Museum, who proposes to refer it to a new species under the name 
of Notornis liochstetteri. 
VOL. II. 
