Natural History Review/Series 2/Volume 1/Number 4/Report on the Present State of our Knowledge of the Species of Apteryx living in New Zealand
[Head at the Meeting of the British Association, September, 1861.]
There appears to be evidence of the present existence of at least four species of birds of the genus Apteryx in New Zealand, concerning which we beg to offer the following remarks, taking them one after the other in the order that they have become successively known.
1. Apteryx australis.
Apteryx ausiralis, Shaw, Nat. Misc. xxiv. pl. 1057, 1058, and Gen. Zool. xiii. p. 71.
„„Bartlett, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850, p. 275.
„„Yarrell, Trans. Zool. Soc. I. p. 71, pl. 10.
The Apteryx australis was originally made known to science about the year 1813, from an example obtained in New Zealand by Captain Barclay of the ship "Providence." This bird, which was deposited in the collection of the late Lord Derby, was afterwards described at greater length in 1833, in the Transactions of the Zoological Society by Mr. Yarrell, and was still, at that date, the only specimen of this singular form known to exist. Examples of Apteryges subsequently obtained, though generally referred to the present species, have mostly belonged to the closely allied Apteryx Mantelli of Bartlett, as we shall presently show, though specimens of the true Apteryx australis exist in the British Museum, and in several other collections.
The original bird described by Dr. Shaw is stated by Mr. Bartlett (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850, p. 276) to have come from Dusky Bay, in the province of Otago, Middle Island, whence Dr. Mantell's specimen, upon which Mr. Bartlett grounded his observations as to the distinctness of this species from Apteryx Mantelli, was also procured.
Dr. Hochstetter was able to learn nothing of the existence of this Apteryx in the province of Nelson, in the same island. In fact, the species is so closely allied to the Apteryx Mantelli as to render it very desirable that further examples of it should be obtained, and a rigid comparison instituted between the two. For the present, however, we must regard this form of Apteryx as belonging to the southern portion of the Middle Island.
2. Apteryx Owenii.
Apteryx Owenii, Gould, P.Z.S. 1817, p. 94.
„„ Birds of Austr. vi. pl. 3.
Owen's Apteryx, which is readily distinguished from the preceding species and A. Mantelli, by its smaller size, transversely barred plumage and slender bill, was first described by Mr. Gould in 1847, from an example procured by Mr. F. Strange, and "believed to have been obtained from the South Island." Since that period other specimens have been received in this country, which have sufficed to establish the species, and from the information obtained by Dr. von Hochstetter, there is no doubt of this being the common Apteryx of the northern portion of the Middle Island.
"In the spurs of the Southern Alps on Cook's Strait, in the province of Nelson," says Dr. von Hochstetter,. "that is, in the higher wooded mountain-valleys of the Wairau chain, as also westwards of Blind-Bay, in the wooded mountains between the Motucka and Aorere valleys, Kiwis of this species are still found in great numbers. During my stay in the province of Nelson I had myself two living examples (male and female) of this species. They were procured by some natives, whom I sent out for this purpose, in the upper wooded valleys of the river State, a confluent of the Aorere, in a country elevated from 2000 to 3000 feet above the sea level. It appears that this Apteryx still lives very numerously and widely spread in the extended southern continuations of the Alps."
3. Apteryx Mantelli.
Apteryx australis, Gould, Birds of Australia, xi. pl. 2.
Apteryx Mantelli, Bartlett, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1817, p. 93.
The characters which distinguish this commoner and better known Apteryx from the true A. australis of Shaw were pointed out by Mr. Bartlett at the meeting of the Zoological Society, held on the 10th Dec. 1850:—"This bird differs from the original Apteryx australis of Dr. Shaw," says Mr. Bartlett, "in its smaller size, its darker and more rufous colour, its longer tarsus, which is scutellated in front, its shorter toes and claws, which are horn-coloured; its smaller wings, which have much stronger and thicker quills; and also in having long straggling hairs on the face."
Mr. Bartlett tells us that, as far as he has been able to ascertain, all specimens of Apteryx Mantelli are from the Northern Island, and this is completely confirmed by Dr. von Hochstetter's observations, which are as follows:—
"In the northern districts of the Northern Island this species of Apteryx appears to have become quite extinct. But in the island called Houtourou, or Little Barrier Island, a small island, completely wooded, rising about 1000 feet above the sea level, and only accessible when the sea is quite calm, which is situated in the Gulf of Hauraki, near Auckland, it is said to be still tolerably common. In the inhabited portions of the southern districts of the Northern Island also, it is become nearly exterminated by men, dogs, and wild cats, and here is only to be found in the more inaccessible and less populous mountain-chains, that is in the wooded mountains between Cape Palliser and East Cape."
"But the inhabitants of the Northern Island speak also of two sorts of Kiwi, which they distinguish as Kiwi-nui (Large Kiwi) and Kiwi-iti (Small Kiwi). The Kiwi-nui is said to be found in the Tuhna district, west of Lake Taupo, and is in my opinion Apteryx Mantelli. Kiwi-iti may possibly be Apteryx Owenii, though I can give no certain information on this subject."
4. Apteryx maxima.
"The Fireman," Gould in Birds of Australia, sub. tab. 3, vol. vi.
Apteryx maxima, Bp. Compt. Rend. Acad. Sc.
"Roa-roa" of the natives of Southern Island.
The existence of a larger species of Apteryx in the Middle Island of New Zealand has long ago been affirmed, and though no specimens of this bird have yet reached Europe, the following remarks of Dr. von Hochstetter seem to leave no reasonable doubt of its actual existence:—
"Besides Apteryx Owenii a second larger species lives on the Middle Island, of which, although no examples have yet reached Europe, the existence is nevertheless quite certain. The natives distinguish this species not as a Kiwi, but as a Roa, because it is larger than A. Owenii (Roa meaning long or tall).
"John Rochfort, Provincial Surveyor in Nelson, who returned from an expedition to the western coast of the province while I was staying at Nelson, in his report, which appeared in the 'Nelson Examiner,' of August 24th, 1859, describes this species, which is said to be by no means uncommon in the Paparoa elevation, between the Grey and Buller rivers, in the following terms:—'A Kiwi about the size of a turkey, very powerful, having spurs on his feet, which, when attacked by a dog, defends himself so well as frequently to come off victorious.'
"My friend, Julius Haart, a German, who was my travelling companion in New Zealand, and in the beginning of the year 1860 undertook an exploring expedition to the southern and western parts of the province of Nelson, writes to me in a letter, dated July, 1860, dated from ten miles above the mouth of the river Buller, on the mountains of the Buller chain, which at a height of from 3000 to 4000 feet, were at that time, it being winter in New Zealand, slightly covered with snow, that the tracks of a large Kiwi of the size of a turkey were very common in the snow, and that at night he had often heard the singular cry of this bird, but that as he had no dog with him he had not succeeded in getting an example of it. He had, nevertheless, left with some natives in that district a tin case with spirit, and promised them a good reward if they would get him one of these birds in spirits, and send it to Nelson by one of the vessels which go from time to time to the west coast."
In concluding this brief report, we wish to call attention to the importance of obtaining further knowledge respecting the recent species of this singular form of birds, whilst it is yet possible to do so. We see that one of them—the Apteryx Mantelli—is already fast disappearing, whilst its history, habits, mode of nidification, and many other particulars respecting it are as yet altogether unknown. We therefore trust that such members of this Association as have friends or correspondents in any part of New Zealand will impress upon them the benefits that they will confer on science, by endeavouring to procure more specimens of, and additional information concerning, the different species of the genus Apteryx.