APPENDIX: NO. XLII. $3 
nearly surrounded by wainscoting of planed deal. In the right hand 
further corner is placed a heap of light vegetable earth, with an edging 
of dry sods, and in the left is the square deal box which serves for a 
house, in which the bird spends the whole of the day. This box has 
an opening, ranging with the back wall, and hung with a little sack- 
cloth curtain, which reaches to within a few inches of the ground, 
and under which the inmate passes when he sallies out on his nightly 
expeditions. The side of the box nearest to the spectator is made to 
let down; by which means the poor Kiwi-kiwi is liable, at a moment’s 
notice, to be exposed to the unwelcome glare of day. 
It is not easy to speak, with any useful result, of the impressions 
produced by the first sight of the bird; these will vary according to 
the feelmgs and temperament of the individual, and more especially 
in proportion to the extent and accuracy of his previous information. 
The first instinctive action of the mind is to compare a real image 
with that already existing in the ‘“mind’s eye.’ In the more 
communicative part of mankind, this gives rise to some exclamation 
to which it is not uninteresting to listen. I need only mention as 
one of the most frequent amongst the visitors to the Kiwi-kiwi,— 
“What a little thing it is! ”?—often in a tone of disappointment, and 
sometimes even of indignation, at the supposed “ take in,” so natural 
is the preference for a sight of animals of not insignificant 
dimensions. Probably false notions of size have been derived from 
representations in some of the illustrated periodicals. 
The physiognomy is one of the first things which strikes most 
persons on seeing a new creature, for we naturally refer everything 
to the human standard. The epithets of “ugly,” “‘ queer-looking,” 
“stupid,” are often coupled with such as “clumsy,” “sulky,” 
“spiteful.” How these may severally be deserved, will be gathered 
from what I have to relate. It is certain they are too generally 
applied not to be highly indicative of impressions produced upon 
a large proportion of the spectators. 
For my own part, as I was not unacqainted with the principal 
places where descriptions and figures of the several species of 
Apteryx were to be found, I may perhaps be pardoned for mentioning 
what most struck me on my first visit as different from any pre- 
conceived notions; though I do not mean to infer that other persons 
would not have derived more accurate ideas from the same sources. 
The various posidions, and the expressions of the face, were new to 
me, for those had not yet been transferred to the painter’s canvas. 
The little convex eye had been described by Professor Owen, but its 
colour had been represented by others as red or green instead of 
black ; and its Rat-lke or Hedgehog-like expression, heightened by 
the long bristles placed near it, and representing the “ whiskers ” 
which are so much developed in Mammalia of nocturnal habits, could 
hardly have been realized until seen alive. I remarked the stoutness 
of the feet and naked part of the legs. I was struck by the scratched 
and dead-white appearance of the large and bony-looking beak, which 
so much reminded me of a Rook’s in that particular, that I actually 
