2344 



THE TINAMUS, FLIGHTLESS BIRDS, ETC. 



slumbering so soundly that no noise will arouse them. If stirred up with a stick, 

 or suddenly wakened, they make a few drowsy movements, and soon relapse into 

 sleep. From observations made on specimens in captivity, it appears that the 

 female kiwi (unlike the other members of the subclass) lays but one or two eggs 

 annually, which are deposited in a hollow in the ground, and incubated by her 

 partner. When there are two, the eggs, which are placed lengthways side by side, 

 are of such a size as to protrude from the sides of the narrow body of the sitting 

 bird. During the breeding season, the kiwi is silent. An egg of the North island 

 kiwi measured a little over five inches in length by three in breadth. 



EXTINCT FAMILIES 



Moas 



The fate impending over 

 the kiwis has long since over- 

 taken their gigantic extinct cousins the 

 moas (Dinornithidcs ) . which had already 

 disappeared from New Zealand when those 

 islands were first colonized from Europe, 

 although there is good reason to believe 

 that they lived on till within the last five 

 hundred or four hundred years, if not to a 

 considerably later date. These birds, of 

 which not only the bones, but in some 

 cases the dried integuments, feathers, and 

 eggshells, as well as the pebbles they were 

 in the habit of swallowing, have been 

 preserved in the superficial deposits of 

 New Zealand, attained a wonderful devel- 

 opment in those distant islands, where they 

 were secure from persecution till man ap- 

 peared on the scene. Not only did the 

 larger members of the group far exceed the 

 ostrich in size, but they were extraordi- 

 narily numerous in species, as they were also in individuals; such a marvelous exu- 

 berance of gigantic bird life being unknown elsewhere on the face of the globe in 

 such a small area. As regards size, the largest moas could have been but little 

 short of twelve feet in height, the tibia being considerably over a yard in length, 

 while the smallest were not larger than a turkey. In reference to their numbers, 

 it may be mentioned that there are some twenty species, arranged in about six 

 genera; and the surface of many parts of the country, as well as bogs and swamps, 

 literally swarmed with their bones. Some of the moas had four toes to the foot, 

 and others but three, all differed from the kiwis in having a bony bridge over the 

 groove for the extensor tendons of the tibia (as shown in the following figure), 

 and are therefore evidently the least specialized members of the subclass we have 



SKELETON OF SHORT-PEGGED MOA. 



