( 377 ) 



jnst ready to lie hatched. The sncceeding morning was showery, and although the 

 men made an early start they broug'ht in about noon only two more adult birds (male 

 and female), taken at different places, and two more young ones, the effect of the 

 rain being to obliterate the scent and spoil the hunt. The weather having now set 

 in very wet and tempestuous, we had to discontinue Kiwi-hunting and see to making 

 our temporary shelter more secure, by an extra layer of kickie thatch. The rain 

 came down in torrents towards evening, but on the whole we found ourselves 

 very comfortably housed. 



" Our expedition lasted a week, with varying success each day according to the 

 weather; the total result being forty Kiwis of all ages and nine eggs. 



" We partook of the flesh of one of the Kiwis which the natives had boiled. It 

 had the dark appearance of, and tasted very much like, tender beef. 



" The first two birds (both females) killed by the dogs I dissected with the 

 following result : — The stomach of one contained three wetas {Deinacrida thoracica), 

 ten huhu grubs, mostly of large size, several earthworms, and a small brown beetle 

 which my son Percy afterwards identified as Coptomma acutipenne ; also some 

 berries of the mairi and taiko (well-known forest trees) and a round object, nearly 

 as large as an ordinary marble, which proved to be the egg of the great earthworm 

 toke-tipa. Before we had made out the last-named thing I handed it for examination 

 to my companion, who pressed it between his finger and thumb, when it burst, 

 sending a jet of milky fluid into my eye, causing much smarting and subsequent 

 irritation. The stomach of the other bird contained, besides insect-remains, a large 

 number of the hard kernels of the taiko berry ; and it seems to me that these are 

 swallowed by the Kiwi (in lieu of quartz pebbles, which are not found in every 

 locality) to assist the process of digestion. I have found similar kernels in the 

 stomachs of Kiwis received from the Upper Wanganui. Among the comminuted 

 matter I was able to detect some very minute landshells. In the stomach of 

 another, which I opened afterwards, I found a number of angular pieces of pebble ; 

 and others contained the hard kernels of pokaka, miro, mairi, and hinau berries. 



" The adult birds when taken from their holes were perfectly mute, but 

 endeavoured to wound with their sharply-armed feet, and made a snapping noise 

 with their bills. I soon found that the safest mode of holding them was suspended 

 by the bill. They then only struggle vainly and strike the air with their feet ; but 

 if their rumps are allowed to touch the ground, so as to give them leverage, then 

 they strike with effect, as I was not long in discovering. A strong adult bird is 

 capable of inflicting a nasty scratch with its sharp claws by a downward stroke ; 

 and one of our natives showed me some skin wounds, long ugly scratches on his 

 arms and legs, inflicted on the previous day by a large Kiwi which he had followed 

 into a sort of cavern at the edge of a stream and captured with his hands. 



" Judging by analogy and the form of the bird, I felt persuaded that the Kiwi 

 was a burrower, but our native attendants all denied it. We had undoubted proof 

 of it, however, liefore we had finished. For the safe custody of our captive birds we 

 had constructed a commodious cage, consisting of kareao-vines well arched over, with 

 both ends driven firmly into the ground, then laced together with native flax and 

 covered over with fern-fronds to keep out the daylight. The birds seemed 

 perfectly at home at once, and commenced to eat the miuced-up fresh meat supplied 

 to them. The old birds continued silent, but the young ones emitted now and 

 then, and especially at night, a low sound not unlike the whimpering of a 

 new-born kitten: The cage contained seven fine adult birds, four females and three 



