. APPENDIX: NO. XLII. 55 
and fall against the upper part of the neck and head, which Jast is 
completely covered by the long feathers that arise above the wing ; 
the course of the beak, the hollow between the thigh and the back, 
and also the wings, are quite concealed by the feathers which sweep 
over; but the feathers on the side on which the head happens to be 
placed, are seen to be raised to rather a higher level than those on 
the other side of the back. The end of the back-bone, that is, of the 
coccyx, which supports no tail, nearly touches the ground. The 
outline of the body, beginning from behind, first rises steeply to the 
top of the insertion of the thigh, then rather rapidly changes to 
horizontal, which part is almost twice as long as the nearly vertical 
hind part, and in front the outline is very soon inclined under the 
body. The only visible sign of life in the form before us, for no 
respiratory movements are seen externally, is an occasional shght 
lateral swaying or tottering, perhaps owing to the unstable supports 
of the body resting on a foundation of straw. 
This position of rest affords an opportunity for a close approach, 
and it was thus that I ascertained that a strong smeil, something like 
that of dead leaves, really proceeds from the skin of the animal ; it 
reminded me very much of the smell of the Hedgehog. If it be done 
very gently, the fingers may be passed amongst the feathers without 
causing the bird, although itsteyes may be wide open, to change its 
position ; when the comfortable feel of the diffuse and downy lower 
webs is found to contrast strongly with the comparative harshness of 
the short and unbarbed webs of the upper part of the feathers, which 
alone, with the prolonged bristle-lke or almost spine-like shaft, is 
visible externally. But I have not by this or any other manceuvre 
been able to feel the beat of the heart, either in the trunk or in the 
extremities ; whilst, from the heat of the body, the circulation must 
have been actively proceeding, 
If now the Kiwi-kiwi be roused gently, the head is removed from 
the side and directed forwards, the beak not being withdrawn like a 
sword from its sheath, but like the blade of a clasp knife sweeping 
through the feathers, the end of it therefore in the action describing 
a sort of semicircle in the horizontal plane. The neck may continue 
to lie against the body, and this gives rise to the appearance of a 
kind of frill (like that of the variety of Common Pigeon called the 
Jacobin) at the back of it, where its nearly erect feathers are 
pressed against the feathers of the body, and turned aside and 
forwards. The beak, however, is never literally in the horizontal 
plane, it slopes downwards from the first, but keeps getting lower 
and lower, until the end of it actually rests upon the straw or upon 
the ground, but so that there is still a considerable slope in it. In 
the mean time the eye is wide open, the eyelids leaving exposed a 
complete circle. The margins of the eyelids are not warty but 
entire, and they are not expanded to form projecting eaves, as they 
are in Owls. In fact these little eyes afford the greatest possible 
contrast to the large ones of those equally nocturnal birds, and they 
differ from them as from all other birds’ eyes, as Professor Owen 
