THE APTERYX. 511 



off the plates ; or, if the dinner-table was left for a moment, they would mount upon it and 

 clear all before them. 



"At other times they stood at the table, waiting for food to be given to them, although 

 they did not hesitate to remove anything within their reach. I have often seen them stand at 

 the window of our dining-room, with keen eye, watching for any morsel of food that might be 

 thrown to them. The day previous to the departure of the pair for their new home, the male 

 bird walked into the dining-room, and remained by my side during the dessert. I regaled him 

 with pineapple and other fruits, and he behaved very decorously and with great forbearance. 

 Having had these birds for a considerable time in my possession, I had ample opportunity of t 

 hearing all the notes uttered by them. I never heard them utter a sound like 'Mooruk.' I 

 am inclined to consider the name signifies, in the native language, ' swift' resembling closely 

 the Malay term 'a muck,' or mad career." 



In the same work is much more curious and valuable information respecting this bird, and 

 to its pages the reader is referred for further information concerning this and many other 

 objects of natural history. 



The Mooruk is not devoid of offensive weapons, for it can kick very sharply, delivering 

 the stroke forward like the ostrich, and deriving much aid from the long-pointed claw which 

 has already been mentioned. Its attitudes are much more various, and its form more flexible, 

 than would be supposed by persons who have not seen the bird in a living state. Sometimes 

 it squats down with the legs bent under it, and so sits upright like a dog that has been taught 

 to "beg;" sometimes it lies on its side, stretching the legs straight behind it ; sometimes it 

 flattens itself against the ground, its legs tucked under its body, and its head and neck 

 stretched at full length on the ground. This latter position is a favorite one. Like the emeu, 

 it is often taken with an ebullition of joyousness, and then dashes about its inclosure as if half 

 mad, jumps against a tree or post, trying to kick it at a great height from the ground, and 

 tumbling flat on its back when it misses its aim. Then it will suddenly cease its vagaries, 

 and walk about very composedly, but panting for breath with open bill. 



This bird may be distinguished from the cassowary by the four (instead of five) spines of 

 the wings, and the shape of the helmet. 



PERHAPS the very strangest and most weird-like of all living birds is the APTERYX, or 

 Kiwi-Kiwi. 



This singular bird is a native of New Zealand, where it was once very common, but, like 

 the dinornis, is in a fair way of becoming extinct, a fate from which it has probably been hitherto 

 preserved by its nocturnal and retiring habits. 



Not many years ago the Apteryx was thought to be a fabulous bird, its veritable existence 

 being denied by scientific men as energetically as that of the giraffe in yet older days, or the 

 duck-bill in more modem times. A skin brought from New Zealand was given to a taxider- 

 mist to "set up," and the man, taking it for one of the penguins on account of its very short 

 wings and the total absence of a tail, stuffed it in a sitting posture, such as is assumed by the 

 penguin tribe, and arranged the head and neck after the same model. 



In this bird there is scarcely the slightest trace of wings, a peculiarity which has gained 

 for it the title of Apteryx, or wingless. The plumage is composed of rather curiously shaped 

 flat feathers, each being wide and furnished with a soft, shining, silken down for the basal 

 third of its length, and then narrowing rapidly towards the extremity, which is a single shaft 

 with hair-like webs at each side. The quill portion of the feathers is remarkably small and 

 short, being even overlapped by the down when the feather is removed from the bird. 



The skin is very tough and yet flexible, and the chiefs set great value upon it for the 

 manufacture of their state mantles, permitting no inferior person to wear them, and being 

 extremely unwilling to part with them even for a valuable consideration. The bird lives 

 mostly among the fern ; and as it always remains concealed during the day in deep recesses of 

 rocks, ground, or tree-roots, and is remarkably fleet of foot, diving among the heavy fern-leaves 

 with singular adroitness, it is not very easy of capture. It feeds upon insects of various kinds, 



