APTERYX MAXIMA, Verr.
Apteryx maxima, Verreanx, Bp. Compt. Rend. Acad. Sc. xliii. p. 841.
In 'The Ibis,' 1862, vol. iv. p. 104, Mr. J. Haast speaks thus:— "On the summits of Papahaua the tracks in the snow showed me that the native description of a large Kiwi, like a Turkey, could not be well exaggerated."
Dr. Buller says, "There is no proof whatever that the bird here described" (viz. Apteryx haastii) "is the same as that for which M. Jules Verreaux proposed the name A. maxima; on the contrary, the evidence, so far as it goes, would seem to indicate the existence of a much larger species of Kiwi in fact, a bird equalling in size a full-grown Turkey."
The recent discovery of a really new form leads one to suppose that it is not impossible that another may yet turn up. To this end, which every faunist must approve, I have laboured for some years; but there is unluckily one significant fact—that, among the various ornithic remains, both recent and fossil, mixed with the bones dug up in 1872 at Moa-bone-Point Cave, Sumner Road, through Dr. Haast's exertions, though Apteryx australis appears, A. maxima, unless overlooked, does not. There are, however, the reports of the natives; but perhaps these do not stand for much. Then we hear of the foot in the Museum at Wellington,
If Apteryx maxima is to be found, it must be, I think, on the west coast, either in a fossil or recent state. It may be alive; if so, of course it will not remain very long. I trust, for the benefit of science, every part of it will be properly made use of—feathers, bones, and flesh.
