THE KIWIS 339 



Professor Parker, in his Hisforij of ilie Kiwi, deals with 

 evidence which seems to him to indicate that the ancestors of 

 Apteryx had the intemipted pterylosis, or feather-arrangement, 

 characteristic of the Carinatte, and that once upon a time their 

 remarkable fore-limbs were true wings, which have been lost, 

 probably for want of usage. A minor matter which, to his mind, 

 points to the same conclusion, is the fact that a sleeping kiwi 

 assumes precisely the same attitude as an ordinary carinate bird, 

 the head being thrust under the side feathers, between the body 

 and the upwardly directed elbow. ' ' On the whole. ' ' he says, ' ' it 

 will be seen that the study of the development of the kiwi tends 

 to lessen the gulf between it and ordinary birds, and to show 

 that its ancestors probably possessed many of the more in^portant 

 and distinctive features which characterise the Carinatas of 

 to-day. The facts clearly indicate that the founder of the 

 apterygian house had interrupted plumage, functional wings, 

 an ordinary avian tail, a keeled sternum, a double-headed 

 quadrate, lateral optic lobes, and a pecten in the eye ; in other 

 words, that the ancestors of the genus were typical flying birds, 

 and not bird-like reptiles." 



As to the relation of the kiwi to the other genera. Professor 

 Parker finds that it has been shown to be most nearly allied, as 

 far as its skeleton is concerned, to the moa, differing from it, 

 however, in many important respects. He says that it must 

 certainly have been isolated at a very distant period, and, as far 

 as can be ascertained, some of its more striking peculiarities are 

 distinctly correlated to its method of feeding. "Most nocturnal 

 auimaLs have large eyes, suited for taking the utmost advantage 

 of the semi-darkness," he concludes, "but the kiwi, finding its 

 prey by scent alone, has developed an extraordinarily perfect 

 olfactory sense, while, at the same time, having no need to keep 

 watch against beasts of prey, its eyes have diminished in size and 

 efficiency to a degree elsewhere unknown in the bird class. ' ' 



The kiwi's mode of reproduction caused a great deal of con- 

 troversy before its habits became well known. Sir George Grey, 

 in 1863, forwarded to Dr. Selater, in England, a letter he had 

 received from a gentleman in Hokianga, who said : — ' ' Several 



