Overview
There are only seven bird skins in the collection that were collected before 1850, the oldest of which is a redwing (Turdus iliacus, a thrush from Europe and Asia) collected in 1808. Unfortunately there are no other data associated with the specimen.
The oldest New Zealand bird skin in the collection is a mounted North Island brown kiwi collected in 1850, supposedly from Masterton, although this is more likely to be where the collector (W. Smith) lived.
The next oldest New Zealand bird specimen is a takahe captured in Thompson Sound, Fiordland in 1851. Formerly held in the British Museum, this specimen was gifted back to the people of New Zealand in 1953, following the remarkable rediscovery of takahe west of Lake Te Anau in 1948. The birds had not been seen since 1898 and were considered to be extinct before their rediscovery by Dr Geoffrey Orbell. Takahe remain critically endangered, but ongoing work by the Department of Conservation, and previously the New Zealand Wildlife Service, has saved them from extinction.