338 THE ANIMALS OF NEW ZEALAND 



have borrowed its head from the h)ng-billed waders, its legs from 

 the gallina?. which include the domestic fowls and other scratchei*s, 

 and its winys from the struthious birds, which include the 

 ostrich, the rhea, the cassowary, and the emu. 



There is very little that we do not know about the kiwi. Not 

 a bone in its frame, or a muscle on its ungainly body, and hardly 

 a feather in its hair-like plumage, has escaped minute and 

 elaborate description. Its innermost private life has been 

 invaded; and its habits, its clumsy gait, its wretchedly defence- 

 less condition, its family failing's, its deformities and malforma- 

 tions have been made public. The only thing that is hidden from 

 us is its origin, which is still a deep mystery, though it is certain 

 that the members of the family Apterygidge, which belong to the 

 struthious birds, have a very ancient lineage. Kiwis have a more 

 generalised structure than that of other struthious birds. They 

 therefore belong to a separate type, and cannot with any degree 

 of correctness be said to represent the extinct moas. 



At first glance, the kiwi's body seems to be covered with hairs 

 instead of feathers ; outwardly, it has neither wings nor a tail ; and 

 the position of its nostrils at the tip of its long and slender beak, 

 instead of at the base, constitutes one of the most distinguishing 

 features. Its olfactory organs are remarkal^ly perfect, and it 

 has a keener sense of smell than is possessed by any other living 

 bird. Its eyes, however, are small and inefficient, differing 

 remarkably from those of other birds by the absence of a vascular 

 membrane called the pecten. Professor T. J. Parker, however, 

 states that this peculiarity applies in strictness only to the adult, 

 and that in advanced embryos a small but distinct pecten is 

 present. The female is considerably larger than the male, and 

 the largeness of the egg she lays is out of all proportion to the 

 size of the bird. When the trunk is stripped of its phnuage. Sir 

 R. Owen remarks, the body presents the fonn of an elongated 

 cone gradually tapering forwards, from the broad base formed by 

 the haunches to the extremity of the attenuated beak ; and the 

 wings appear as two small crooked appendages, projecting about 

 an inch and a half from the sides of the thorax, and terminated 

 by a curved, obtuse, horny claw, a quarter of an inch long. 



