340



Mantell’s Apteryx.



began to lay regularly, there being two eggs every year. In September,

1863, Major E. Ruck Keane obtained a second Apteryx from a Maori,

who had taken it in a swamp ; this was safely brought to England,

and the Major presented it to the Zoo. In spite of the other bird’s

peevish temper the two agreed well together after a few days. In

1865, a male bird, which had been presented by Surgeon Henry

Slade; R.N., showed a wish to pair with the original bird of 1851—

now some fourteen years in the collection, and like a famous whiskey,

“ still going strong.” Two eggs were laid, and the male incubated

them constantly for more than three months, but without result.

At last he gave up exhausted; the eggs were found to be clear.


Apteryxes subsequently became fairly well known to Conti¬

nental aviculture. In 1870, the German Consul at Wellington

received from Sir W. L. Buller several Mantelli for transmission to

Berlin. At that time they were still common in parts of New

Zealand ; in 1871, two more were added to the London Zoo—one

purchased, and the other as a gift from Mr. A. Lafone. In 1902, the

writer saw both Mantell’s and Owen’s species in the great zoological

garden at Amsterdam. In 1902, there was an Apteryx at Cologne ;

it was kept in the ostrich-house, a curious structure built like a

mosque, lighted from above, and heated in winter by two stoves. In

the same year an Apteryx mantelli was received at the Berlin Zoo¬

logical Gardens.


During the past sixteen years the writer has had the good

fortune to see some five individuals of Mantell’s Apteryx. These

birds spend the entire day in profound sleep, never stirring till all is

dark ; if several are kept they huddle together in a heap. In slumber

the bird lies with the feet bent under the body, and the head directed

backwards ; the bill is pressed close to the side, and lies above the

wing and not beneath it, whereas in certain flightless birds, such as

penguins, the bill lies belonv the wing. On being lifted out of its

straw the Apteryx usually remains passive in the observer’s grasp,

though some individuals struggle and kick. The brown hairy plumage

and whisker-like vibrissse of Mantell’s species suggest a mammal

rather than a bird ; the legend of the kaureke, a rat-like mammal

formerly supposed to inhabit New Zealand, was probably founded on

some hasty glimpse of a running Apteryx. The eye of this bird is



