APPENDIX : NO. XLII. be) 
eye visible at the hinder part of it, which gives it a wild expression ; 
but this “white of the eye” is rather of a deep livid colour, not 
separated from the black by any sudden line. Perhaps the feathers 
of the head and neck appear more erect than before the putting on 
the attitude of defence, but they are at all times so much so as to 
have the appearance of fur. There is never the slightest attempt to 
use the beak in defence either by pecking or biting; though, from 
its great strength, it seems that it might be effective i in the former 
way; but the Eagle affords a similar instance of reliance upon the 
feet alone; for Sutherlandshire keepers, who have had many 
encounters with Eagles, have assured me that the beak has never 
been used in those engagements, whatever opportunities may have 
been offered to it. The Kiwi-kiwi seems to have little notion of 
lowering the head or putting it on one side to avoid the hand that is 
intruded upon it, though the whole body and neck are then drawn 
back, the front always towards the enemy. 
When any approach from the front is made to the bird in this war- 
like state (and it is never possible to avoid causing a demonstration 
of his wrath, unless by the most gradual advances), he soon shows 
his method of attack. He suddenly raises his leg, sometimes the 
right and sometimes the left, and strikes downwards with great 
force, while the other leg remains a steady and generally unmoved 
support. In this act he takes a great range, raising his foot quite 
up to his breast, sometimes, I should guess, a foot from the ground 
as he stands upright. Occasionally he aims a blow sideways, as an 
Eagle will do, but differing from that bird in this respect, that the 
kind of injury he is able to inflict, requires an impetus only to be 
obtained by a great previous elevation of the foot, whilst the Eagle 
has only to direct his aim by the shortest possible route. 
I have known the Kiwi-kiwi to reach a hand placed upon his 
back, but then he has been in a more horizontal position. Generally 
the movement is sudden and unexpected, but sometimes the leg is 
raised up to the breast with the claws expanded, and kept there, at 
least in one instance, for several minutes ; so that I began to think 
he was bond fide resting upon one lIcg, as I have never otherwise 
seen him do. 
I do not know which leg he uses most frequently, but at any one 
visit he generally is seen to use the same one in all his blows, but 
not always. Sometimes, again, he takes a kind of spring forwards, 
and possibly strikes with both legs. These, and the other attacks, 
when made in good earnest, are accompanied by a kind of growl or 
grunt, like that of an angry Rabbit, which any oue who has put his 
hand into a hole where there is a tame Rabbit weli knows. ‘he 
growl is often closely either followed or preceded, I am not sure 
which, by a snap of the beak, which snap is not so sharp as that 
made by an Owl, and more feeble, perhaps like the noise made by 
holding together by the ends two small leather straps (say of the 
size of six inches by one inch), relaxing them in the middle, and 
suddenly bringing them together again. This additional menace, 
