§2 APPENDIX: NO. XLII. 
it for granted that my readers are more or less acquainted with the 
general construction and proportions of the Kiwi-kiwi, for even the 
outlines of a complete description would extend my paper to too 
great a length, and I could produce nothing upon these subjects not 
already disposed of in the beautiful writings of Professor Owen, in 
the Zoological Transactions. 
The visitor to the Zoological Gardens who specially asks for an 
interview with the celebrated bird, now for the first time brought 
alive to this side of the globe, is conducted, by a somewhat obscure 
route, to the new building called the “ Ostrich-house,” situated at 
the north-east corner of the grounds, amongst the trees above the 
cutting which forms the Regent’s Canal. Well provided with light, 
and with apparatus for supplying heat and fresh air, it is divided into 
five stalls, or “ loose-boxes,” three of which are at present occupied 
by an Ostrich and two kinds of Antelope. In the furthest of the 
divisions is a New Zealand Rail, most appropriately placed near the 
Kiwi-kiwi, not only as an additional instance of the extraordinary 
Fauna of its country, but as showing the striking constrast of its 
habits to those of its neighbour, which it resembles so much in its 
plumage and in its want of the powers of flight, whilst it widely 
differs from it in the relations of its organization. In a few words, | 
the Rail is active, inquisitive, playful, moving about by night as well 
as by day. It jerks its tailin walking; it peeps and peers about, and 
seems to hide things and to find them again, throwing the intervening 
‘material aside by lateral tosses of the beak, almost like a bird of the 
Crow-kind. At night, it occasionally utters a very strong cry, 
repeated many times in succession, which I can only liken to the 
creaking sound I have sometimes heard produced by turning the 
large wooden screw of a clothes-press. It frequently gets from the 
ground upon the roof of its little house, and thence upon a sort of 
shelf; but I have not seen it open its wings in springing’ up, though 
it sometimes does so as it lets itself down. The species is, I believe, 
Ocydromus fuscus ; a specimen of Ocydromus australis is in another 
part of the Gardens: whether they are different species or not, I am 
informed that they are indiscriminately called Weka (?) in New 
Zealand, and by the European settlers ‘‘ Wood-hen.” The first 
named of these birds has lately been imported into England, the 
other was purchased:at the sale of the late Lord Derby’s animals, at 
Knowsley, on the 10th of March?, 1851. 
Interesting as all these birds are, and only wanting a Takahé 
(Notornis) to complete the main surviving features of the New 
Zealand group of non-volant birds, I must confine myself at present 
to a more lengthened description of the one which is especially the 
object of this communication. | 
The stall in which the Kiwi-kiwi is kept is floored with brick, and 
1 “March” is a mistake for September; but the bird seems to have been 
entered in the Sale Catalogue (p. 42) as Huwlabeornis castanioventris, from North 
Australia.—Eb. } 
