WINGLESS BIRDS. 255 



the wings of whicli are so poorly developed as to be wholly unsuit- 

 able for flight. As an offset and just compensation for this, their 

 long and robust legs permit them to run with extraordinary speed. 

 For that reason they have been called running birds, in distinction 

 from other kinds that constitute the group of flying birds. Among 

 them are some gigantic birds, and also some that have no visible 

 wings on the outside of their bodies, and may therefore be prop- 

 erly called wingless. 



The ostrich is a member of this group. With its bare, callous 

 head and short bill, its long, featherless neck, and its massive body, 

 supported by long, half-bare legs, ending in two large toes; its very 

 short wings, formed of soft and flexible feathers; and its plume- 

 shaped tail, it presents a very special appearance among the birds. 



The nandous, the American representatives of the ostrich, have 

 still shorter wings, which have no remigia at all, and terminate in 

 a horny appendage, and they have no tail feathers. 



The cassowary and the emu also resemble the ostrich in many 

 points, but their wings are still more reduced than those of the 

 nandou. They are only slightly distinct, and can not be seen when 

 the bird holds them close up to its body. In the Apteryx, the 

 name of which, from the Greek, means without wings, the organs 

 of flight are hardly apparent, and consist simply of a very short 

 stump bearing a thick and hooked nail. The Apteryx, which is 

 also called Kiwi, a native of New Zealand, is the most singular of 

 living birds. The neck and the body are continuous, and the 

 moderately sized head is furnished with a long beak resembling 

 that of the ibis. Having long hairs similar to the mustaches of 

 cats at its base, it is different from the bills of all other existing 

 birds in possessing nostrils that open at its upper point. Although 

 the Apteryx can not fly, it runs very fast, despite the shortness of 

 its legs, and can defend itself very effectively against assailants 

 by the aid of its long-nailed and sharp-nailed feet. The tail is 

 absent like the wings. The very pliant feathers are extremely 

 curious, of the shape of a lance-head, pendent, loose, silky, with 

 jagged barbs, and increase in length as they go back from the 

 neck. The bird is of the size of a fowl, and when in its normal 

 position stands with its body almost vertical, and carries the sug- 

 gestion of a caricature — resembling, we might say, a feathered sack, 

 with only a long-billed head and the claws projecting, and one be- 

 holding it feels that he is looking at some unfinished creature. It 

 is a nocturnal bird, of fierce temper, and has become rare in con- 

 sequence of the merciless war that is made upon it. Everything 

 is strange about it, even the single egg it lays, which w^eighs about 

 a quarter as much as its body. 



