APPENDIX. 571 



February the 2nd, 1863 : — ' Several years ago, an old native, 

 who had been a great Kiwi-hunter in the times when the 

 Kiwi were plentiful, told me a strange tale about the manner 

 in which the Kiwi hatches its eggs. I, of course, cannot 

 vouch for the correctness of the story, but think it worth 

 relating ; he said that the Kiwi did not sit, like other birds, 

 tipon the egg, but under it, first burying the egg in the ground 

 to a considerable depth, and then digging a cave or nest 

 under it by which about one third of the lower end was 

 exposed, and so lying under the egg and in contact with the 

 lower end, which came, as it were, through the roof of the 

 nest or burrow. The appearance of the egg, which I propose 

 to send, corroborated this statement, for two-thirds of its 

 length (the small end) was perfectly clean and white, and 

 about one-third (the large end) was very much discoloured 

 and very greasy, evidently from contact with the body of the 

 bird. The difference in the colour and condition of the ends 

 of the egg was quite remarkable and well defined by a 

 circular line passing round the egg.' 



" Mr. E. L. Layard has favoured me with the following 

 information on the same subject, forwarded to him by Mr. 

 Webster, also resident at Hokianga, which contains much 

 more positive information. 



" Mr. Webster writes as follows : — ' A fortnight ago a 

 native, out shooting Pigeons, discovered a Kiwi's egg pro- 

 truding out of a small hole at the root of a Kauri-tree ; 

 removing the %^^^^, he put his arm, to the elbow, up the hole, 

 and got hold of the parent-bird. Does it not appear to be a 

 strange position for an egg to be in ? 



" ' An old native, who professes to know something about 

 them, states that they lay but one ^gg at a time. The nest 

 is merely a hole scraped out by the bird, and generally about 

 the roots of a tree where the ground is dry ; the egg is covered 

 with leaves and moss, the decomposition of which evolves 

 heat sufficient to bring forth the young. The process takes 



