352 INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



included. The fact is, that here, as in other great groups, the 

 characteristics must be sought in some which may be looked 

 upon as the types or representatives of the order, and not be 

 rigorously required in every individual that naturalists may 

 place in the same assemblage. 



Cuvier arranges, in one family, all the birds of the present 

 order whose wings are not adapted for flying, as those of the 

 Ostrich {Fig. 249), and of the Cassowary {Fig. 238). Here, 

 also, is placed the Apteryx {Fig. 276), the wingless bird of 



Fig. 276.— Apteetx. 



New Zealand. It is a creature so strange, that no imagination 

 could have fancied a bird without wings or tail, with robust 

 legs, claws suited for digging, and actually used in forming 

 excavations in which this singular bird lays its eggs and hatches 

 its young. When we add that its habits are nocturnal, we 

 have stated the most striking peculiarities of a bird which is 

 now rare, and may possibly become extinct. Dissection shows 

 the existence of the wing-bones, but in a rudimentary state.* 

 This entire division is without any representative among ovu* 

 native birds. 



CharadriadcE. — The Plover is the true representative of 

 this familj'', and derives its name from the French " Pliwier,'^ 

 a term given because the bird appears in large migrating 

 flocks in the rainy weather of spring and autumn. The Golden 

 Plover {Charadrius pbivialis) frequents swampy grounds and 

 solitary bogs. It is one of those birds which appear to have 

 a double moult. The real moult, or actual change of feathers, 

 occurs in autumn ; in spring some new feathers appear, and 

 others undergo a change of colour ; so that the aspect of the 

 bird alters twice in the course of the year. The Golden 

 Plover, and still more the species next mentioned, exhibit a 



• Professor Owen on the Apteryx, Trana. ZooL Society. 



