272 AVES. 



on a short neck, is prolonged into a long and rounded, snipe-like beak, 

 at the extreme point of which are the nasal apertures. The Kiwis 

 are nocturnal birds, which by day remain concealed in holes in the 

 earth and go out at night to seek their food. They feed on insect- 

 larvae and worms, live in pairs, and at the breeding time, which seems 

 to come twice in the year, they lay, in holes scraped in the earth, a 

 strikingly large egg, which according to some is incubated by the 

 female, and according to others by the male and female in turn. 



A second group of terrestrial birds of New Zealand, which are 

 incapable of flight, includes a number of forms which are in great part 

 extinct, and'some of which attained an enormous size (up to ten feet 

 high). These are the Dmornithidae. Of heavy, unwieldy build, and 

 incapable of raising themselves from the ground, they were unable to 

 resist the pursuit of the natives of New Zealand. The remains of 

 some have been found in the diluvium, and in some cases the bones 

 appear so recent, that it cannot be doubted that they co-existed with 

 man. The traditions of the natives about the gigantic Moa, and 

 numerous discoveries of the fragments of eggs in graves, also point 

 to the fact that these gigantic birds have lived in historic times; 

 while, 011 the other hand, recent discoveries have rendered probable 

 the existence of smaller species at the present day. Recently in the 

 exploration of the mountain chains, between the Rewaki and Tabaka 

 rivers, the footprints of a gigantic bird, the bones of which were 

 already known from the volcanic sand of the north island, have been 

 discovered. The restoration of the skeleton of gigantic species 

 (Palapteryx inyens, Dinornis giganteus, ehphantopus, etc.) has been 

 partially effected from the bones which have been collected. A 

 skeleton of Dinornis elephantopus is in the British Museum, and 

 one of P. ingens has been set up in Vienna by Hochstetter (Voyage 

 of the Novara). In Madagascar pieces of the tarsal bones of a 

 gigantic bird have been found in the alluvium (^Epyornis maximus 

 the Reek of Marco Polo), and well-preserved, colossal eggs have 

 been discovered in the mud, the contents of which would have been 

 equal to about 150 hen's eggs. 



