KIWI 497 



" The Kiwi is in some measure compensated for the absence of 

 wings by its swiftness of foot. When running it makes wide 

 strides and carries the body in an oblique position, with the neck 

 stretched to its full extent and inclined forwards. In the twilight 

 it moves about cautiously and as noiselessly as a rat, to which, indeed, 

 at this time it bears some outward resemblance. In a quiescent 

 posture, the body generally assumes a perfectly rotund appearance ; 

 and it sometimes, but only rarely, supports itself by resting the point 

 of its bill on the ground. It often yawns when disturbed in the 

 daytime, gaping its mandibles in a very grotesque manner. When 

 provoked it erects the body, and, raising the foot to the breast, 

 strikes downwards with considerable force and rapidity, thus using its 

 sharp and powerful claws as weapons of defence. . . . While hunt- 

 ing for its food the bird makes a continual sniffing sound through the 

 nostrils, which are placed at the extremity of the upper mandible. 

 Whether it is guided as much by touch as by smell I cannot safely 

 say ; but it appears to me that both senses are used in the action. 

 That the sense of touch is highly developed seems quite certain, 

 because the bird, although it may not be audibly sniffing, will 

 always first touch an object with the point of its bill, whether in 

 the act of feeding or of surveying the ground ; and when shut up 

 in a cage or confined in a room it may be heard, all through the night, 

 tapping softly at the walls. ... It is interesting to watch the 

 bird, in a state of freedom, foraging for worms, which constitute 

 its principal food : it moves about with a slow action of the body ; 

 and the long, flexible bill is driven into the soft ground, generally 

 home to the very root, and is either immediately withdrawn with a 

 worm held at the extreme tip of the mandibles, or it is gently 

 moved to and fro, by an action of the head and neck, the body of the 

 bird being perfectly steady. It is amusing to observe the extreme 

 care and deliberation with which the bird draws the worm from its 

 hiding-place, coaxing it out as it were by degrees, instead of pulling 

 roughly or breaking it. On getting the worm fairly out of the 

 ground, it throws up its head with a jerk, and swallows it whole." 



The foregoing extract refers to A. mantelli, but there is little 

 doubt of the remarks being equally applicable to A. australis, and 

 probably also to A. oweni, though the different proportion of the 

 bill in the last points to some diversity in the mode of feeding. 

 Did space allow much more should be said of the Kiwis — perhaps 

 to ornithologists the most interesting group of birds now existing, 

 and the more interesting in regard to the melancholy doom of 

 extinction which almost inevitably awaits them ; but there is some 

 consolation in the thought that their anatomy and development 

 have been admirably studied and described in the light of existing 

 scientific methods by Prof. T. Jeff'rey Parker (Phil. Trans. 1891, 

 pp. 25-134, pis. 3-19 ; 1892, pp. 73-84, pis. 7, 8). 



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