331 
The resident Maoris, on seeing the first examples that were brought in, said that this was the 
young of the Eoaroa, a Kiwi said to exceed considerably in size the Tokoeka (^Apteryx australis). 
I am informed that Mr. Bills has obtained from the west coast and forwarded to England no less 
than five specimens of Apteryx haasti, some of which were larger and more handsomely marked than 
those in the Museum. These were probably females, although the collector was unable to state 
the sex. 
There is no proof whatever that the bird here described is the same as that for which M. Jules 
Verreaux proposed the name of Apteryx maxima* •, on the contrary, the evidence, so far as it goes, 
would seem to indicate the existence of a much larger species of Kiwi than any of the foregoing in 
fact, a bird equalling in size a full-grown Turkey. For this reason I have considered it safer to retain 
the name bestowed upon it in compliment to the late Sir Julius von ITaast, to whom the Colony is 
indebted for the establishment of a valuable museum of science and art at Canterbury, as well as for 
several important topographical and geological surveys in that district. 
With closely-allied forms sharing the same habitat, it is somewhat hard to determine how far to 
go or where to stop in the discrimination of species. So far as we can judge at present. Apteryx 
haasti is readily distinguishable from A. oweni ; but there would seem to be almost as much justifica- 
tion for our distinguishing as a new species, separable from A. hullert, the Kiwi-kura (or “ red Kiwi ) 
found with its young of the same colour in the Pirongia ranges (as mentioned on page 310), for in 
this instance there was not merely a distinction of colour, but a very manifest modification in the 
structure of the plumage. It is no answer to say that both forms were found inhabiting the same 
range of mountain, any more than it would be an objection to the already recognized species that 
Apteryx australis, A. oweni, and A. haasti are all found in the same district, or that, while Aj)teryx 
hulleri is abundant in the Upper Wanganui, A. oweni is known to exist on the hill-tops between that 
district and Wellington. The explanation is, of course, to be found in descent from a common 
ancestor, the differentiation having been brought about by natural causes which we have not yet been 
able to determine with any certainty. As we have seen in treating of Apteryx hulleri, examples from 
different localities in the North Island exhibit minor peculiarities that are more or less constant. Such 
variation can hardly be matter of surprise in the case of flightless birds w'hose habitat for countless 
generations may have been restricted to some particular range of mountains. This principle extended 
ought to be sufficient to account for the existence of at least four recognized species of Apteryx within 
so small a geographical area as New Zealand. 
For obvious reasons I have endeavoured to make my account of this very remarkable group of 
wingless birds as full and exhaustive as possible. Apart from the special interest attaching to species 
that are rapidly expiring, the Apterygine form is so entirely anomalous among existing birds, that 
every minute particular of natural economy and life-history appears to be worth recording. 
It rmrst be at once apparent that a close and patient study of the avifaurra of srrch a courrtry as 
New Zealand cannot fail to have an important bearing on the question, which claims so large a share 
of attention among naturalists of the present day, as to the origin of species. 
It seems impossible for any one who has given even the most cursory attention to the subject to 
doubt that such closely allied forms as Apteryx hulleri and Apteryx australis, Ocydromus greyi arrd 
Ocydromus australis, and the other representative species inhabiting the North and South Islands 
respectively, have in each case sprirng from a common parent, the amount of difference which is now 
sufficient to distmguish them specifically being the result of a long-continued and persistent modifica- 
tion irr a given direction, arrd under conditions favourable to its permanence. lire orrly admission 
* Bp. Compt. Rend. Acad. Sc. xliii. p. 841 (1856, ex Verr. MS.). 
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