WINGLESS BIRDS 



Moa is allied to the ostriches of Africa, the 

 emeus and cassowaries of Australia, and the 

 rheas of South America. 



It appears that under certain conditions of 

 life birds may gradually lose the use of their 

 wings, which dwindle in size and finally may dis- 

 appear altogether. Such wingless birds are not 

 necessarily of one stock. The wingless condi- 

 tion, or the great reduction in the size of the 

 wings, has occurred in various kinds of birds at 

 various periods of the earth's history, and in the 

 same way wingless insects of different orders have 

 come into existence. In New Zealand, besides 

 the Moas, which are all now extinct, a small kind 

 of wingless bird is found which is still alive and 

 is known as the Apteryx or Kiwi. In Fig. 176 

 we have placed one behind the other each with 

 its egg in front of it : a Kiwi, the skeleton of a 

 very fine Ostrich, and the skeleton of a giant 

 Moa (Dinornis maximus). The Polynesian 

 islanders who landed in New Zealand some five 

 hundred years ago, found the Moas still living, 

 and hunted them down and lived upon their 

 flesh. Skin and feathers of these enormous 

 birds have been found preserved in a dried 

 condition as well as the skeletons, and there are 



241 R 



