THE APTERYX. 513 



The fine specimen kept in captivity proved a very valuable bird, as she has laid several 

 eggs, thereby setting at rest some disputed questions on the subject, and well illustrating the 

 natural habits of the species. During the day she remains hidden behind the straw, which is 

 piled up in a corner of her box, and declines to come forth unless removed by force. When 

 brought to the light, she looks sadly puzzled for a short time, and when placed on the ground 

 she turns her back not her tail, as she has no such appendage and runs off to her box in the 

 most absurd style, looking as if she were going to topple over every moment. I noticed that 

 she always goes round her box and slips in between the box and the wall, insinuating herself 

 behind the straw without even showing a feather. Before hiding herself, she lingered a few 

 moments to eat some worms from her keeper's hand, taking them daintily with the end of the 

 bill, and disposing of them at a rapid rate. 



Upon her box is placed, under a glass shade, the shell of one of her eggs. These eggs are 

 indeed wonderful, for the bird weighs just a little more than four pounds, and each egg weighs 

 between fourteen and fifteen ounces, its length being four inches and three-quarters, and its 

 width rather more than two inches, thus being very nearly one-fourth of the weight of the 

 parent bird. There have been six eggs laid between the time when it was captured and nine 

 years later, when I last saw the bird, and each egg has varied between thirteen and fourteen 

 and a half ounces in weight. 



The long curved beak of the Apteryx has the nostrils very narrow, very small, and set on 

 at each side of the tip, so that the bird is enabled to pry out the worms and other nocturnal 

 creatures on which it feeds, without trusting only to the eyes. The general color of the 

 Apteryx is chestnut-brown, each feather being tipped with a darker hue, and the under parts 

 are lighter than the upper. The height is about two feet. 



Three species of Apteryx are known namely, the one already described, OWEN'S 

 APTERYX (Apteryx owenii), remarkable for the puffy downiness of its plumage, and MAN- 

 TELL' s APTERYX (Apteryx mantellii), and it is very probable that there are still other species 

 at present unknown. 



