SOME COMMON BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA 



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past five hundred years. The remains of these peculiar birds 

 have been found in great numbers in caves and refuse heaps in 

 New Zealand, to which country they appear to have been con- 

 fined. Twenty or thirty species are known from these remains. 

 They range in size from that of a turkey to nearly ten feet 

 high. They were flightless, but 

 possessed enormous hind limbs. 



Flightless Birds. Many 

 birds, like the extinct moas, 

 possess only rudimentary wings 

 and therefore are unable to fly. 

 The ostrich succeeds in escap- 

 ing many of its enemies by 

 running, but most of the flight- 

 less birds are an easy prey for 

 man and other animals. They 

 have either become extinct, like 

 the great auk, or are nearly 

 all exterminated. In South 

 America occur some flightless 

 birds called rheasor New World 

 ostriches because of their re- 

 semblance to true ostriches. 



Two other kinds of flight- 

 less birds are worthy of men- 

 tion : the kiwis of New Zealand 

 and the penguins of the Ant- 

 arctic regions. The kiwis (Fig. 

 239) are very strange-looking because their wings are so small 

 that they are entirely covered by the hairlike body feathers, 

 and the absence of tail feathers gives the bird a peculiar stumpy 

 appearance. 



The penguins (Fig. 240) are adapted for life in the water. 

 The fore limbs are modified as paddles for swimming; the feet 

 are webbed; the cold water can be shaken entirely from the 



FIG. 241. Pelican. (Photo, 

 by Sanborn.) 



