422 BIRD SANCTUARIES OF NEW ZEALAND. 



are hatclied they start to search for their own food, and require no 

 hints as to the best phice to find it. The single egg, like that of the 

 mutton bird, is exceptionally large. Thus, in the nesting season the 

 hen, always in fine condition, weighs about 8 pounds, the " hatcher " 

 5 pounds and the eggs 18 ounces. 



The gray kiwi is described as a shy, gentle, little thing, that seems 

 to depend wholly for its existence on its ability to hide away in lonely 

 places. They are shaped much like the roa, but have straight beaks. 

 It is a light-loving bird, that feds by day mostly upon white grubs. 

 It resembles the roa in its breeding habits, laying one large egg, 

 hatched by the male bird, but while, in the nesting season, the pair of 

 roas are rarely separated the kiwis are just as rarely found together. 

 The young are very beautiful birds, quite silent, but so alert and cau- 

 tious that if you take your eyes off them for a while they disappear. 

 \Vlien grown, they have a shrill, whistling note, which Mr. Henry 

 describes as like a guard's whistle in a railway train heard a little way 

 off. In summer both the roa and the kiwi like to go up to the high 

 ground, affecting naked mountain crests, and their pathways are 

 clearly marked. The kiwi builds in a short burrow underground, 

 generally protected at the mouth by the root of a tree. In the case of 

 both the roa and kiwi, it looks as though the male bird hatched con- 

 tinuously for about thirty days. They go on the nest fat and plump, 

 and by the time the young bird is hatched are feeble skeletons. 



