CHAPTER IX 



I MUST introduce a few of our native birds 

 with which I have actually come into contact. 

 I suppose the Apteryx (Kiwi) ought to lead the 

 van ; for a bird that cannot fly sounds almost as 

 uncommon as a pig that can. My acquaintance 

 with this wingless bird is very slight, as they are 

 only active in the night ; and those I saw were 

 shut up in a box in the daytime, quite drowsy and 

 curled up in the darkest corner as round as a ball, 

 looking most unbird-like. They have mottled, 

 hair-like feathers, and long bills to drag worms 

 out of the ground, which is their chief or only 

 food. As they are to be seen alive at the zoos, 

 and stuffed -in the museums, most people have 

 seen them. Our introduction to the ' Ka Ka,' so 

 called from its cry, or, rather, his introduction to 

 us (for we eat him), was with mixed feelings. 

 Plucking a parrotj seemed all wrong, but, accord- 

 ing to others, it was all right ; so I carefully 

 preserved his beautiful feathers, and wondered, 

 knowing the great age to which parrots live, how 

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