Art. XX.—On the Occurrence of Apteryx oweni at high altitudes in the North Island.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 8, 1875, Page 193

Art. XX.—On the Occurrence of Apteryx oweni at high altitudes in the North Island. By Walter L. Buller, C.M.G., D.Sc. [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 12th February, 1876.] We have been so accustomed to speak of the Apteryx oweni as a strictly South Island species, and, as representing these, the Brown Kiwi of the North Island (Apteryx mantelli), that the discovery of its existence, under certain conditions in this Province is an interesting fact in geographic distribution. The fine specimen which I now exhibit, and for which I am indebted to Mr, Morgan Carkeek, of the Survey Department, was obtained by that gentleman, on Mount Hector, at the head of the Hutt River, in December last. It was caught by his dog among the snow-grass, at an elevation of about 3000 feet. At a higher altitude he found the species comparatively abundant, and he met with it occasionally below the snow-line, frequenting mossy places in the bush free from undergrowth. This peculiarity of range, as compared with the distribution of the species in the South Island is very suggestive, and it will be interesting to discover whether this bird inhabits the summits of mountains further north. In connection with the Apteryx, there is another matter to which I will take this opportunity of referring. Captain Hutton, in his valuable essay on the “Geographical Relations of the New Zealand Fauna” (“Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. VI., p. 232) says:—“The Apterygidœ have a more generalised structure than the other struthious birds; they, therefore, belong to an older type, and cannot, with any degree of correctness, be said to represent the extinct race of Moas.”

And, again, in his review of my “Birds of New Zealand,” in the “New Zealand Magazine,” p. 99, Captain Hutton says:—"We must take exception to the Kiwi being considered as the living representative of the Moa, or as Dr. Buller puts it in his preface, ‘the only living representative of an extinct race.’ No doubt the Kiwi and the Moa have several features in common; but it is certain that both the Emu and the Cassowary are far more nearly related to the Moa than is the Kiwi.” It will be interesting to the meeting to learn that Professor Mivart has recently read a paper before the Zoological Society of London, on the axial skeleton of the Struthionidæ, which effectually settles the question at issue. The learned professor pointed out that, judging by the characters of the axial skeleton, the Emu presents the least differential type, from which Rhea diverges most on the one hand, and Apteryx on the other; that the resemblance between Dromaus and Casuarinus is exceedingly close, while the axial skeleton of Dinornis is intermediate between that of Casuarinus and Apteryx; its affinities, however, with the existing New Zealand form very decidedly predominating. It will be seen, therefore, that I was fully justified in referring to the existing species of Apteryx, as “the diminutive representatives of colossal ornithic types that have disappeared.”