Page:DawsonOrnithologicalMiscVol1.djvu/41

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birds of new zealand.
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from the gape to the end of the upper mandible 5·6 inches; upper mandible overreaching lower mandible by 0·3 of an inch; tarsus 2·5 inches; middle toe, with claw, 2·6 inches. Specimen no. 2.—Face, head, and neck dark brown, blackish brown on the nape; entire plumage richer in colour than specimen no. 1; on the back of the thighs a chestnut bar, a bar of chestnut crossing the plumage above the tarsal joint; upper mandible measuring, from the gape to point, 5·4 inches; tarsus 2·5 inches; middle toe, with claw, 2·75 inches.

"Note.—In the 'Catalogue of the Birds of New Zealand' (Hutton, Colonial Museum, Wellington, 1871), the compiler appears anxious to refer the new species to Apteryx maxima, Verr., on the strength of a foot and tarsus of a very large species of Apteryx, the plumage and other characteristics of which are unknown. It is there stated that the bird to which the said tarsus and foot pertained was as large as a Turkey, and weighed nearly 14 lbs. Now, for A. haastii we cannot claim the possession of such grand proportions; both the specimens of the new species described in this paper are equalled, sometimes excelled, by fine examples of A. australis, Shaw, which, in the flesh, would not exceed 7 lbs.; this, an outside weight, is given on the authority of the collector, who has literally slain his thousands of Apterygidæ, and through whose exertions colonial and foreign museums have been supplied with examples of the Middle-Island Apterygidæ.—Nov. 23."

Mr. Potts, in the 'Zoologist,' S. S. No. 105, June 1874, p. 4014, says as follows:—"Haast's Kiwi.—During a visit to the west coast last summer the localities were pointed out to the writer whence the specimens now in the Canterbury Museum were procured. One was found in the bush far up the Okarita river, the other in the dense bush between the eastern shore of Lake Mapourika and the snowy range of which Mount Cook is monarch. Mr. Docherty stated that both of these birds appeared wilder than Apteryx australis, and made somewhat more resistance during their capture."

He adds, in the 'Zoologist,' S.S. No. 108, September 1874, p. 4158, "I have much pleasure in communicating the fact of the occurrence of this