KIWIS 



willow down, or reindeer hair, all well shaken out and care- 

 fully disposed to form a soft bed. 



Ostriches and other similar birds, that is to say, Rheas, 

 Cassowaries, and Emus, lay their eggs in a large hollow 

 excavated in the sand. In the warmer districts in which 

 these birds dwell they only sit during the night, when it is 

 necessary to protect the eggs from jackals ; in the daytime 

 they cover them over with sand and abandon them to the 

 heat of the sun. Several hens lay in a single nest, but they 

 take no part in the duty of incubation, which is left entirely 

 to the male bird. 



That wholly remarkable bird the Kiwi may fittingly be 

 mentioned here, partly by reason of its supposed relationship 

 to the ostriches and its manner of nesting, but also because 

 its strangeness in many respects makes it a creature apart 

 from its race, and one which may appropriately serve to 

 conclude our series of bird excavators. The kiwis (Apteryx) 

 are found only in New Zealand, where they spend the day in 

 burrows and sally forth at dusk in search of worms and 

 other food. As their name, Apteryx^ suggests, these birds 

 are apparently wingless ; they are not really so, however, and 

 though the wings are very small they are readily felt under 

 the long, narrow, soft feathers. The kiwi is also apparently 

 tailless, but to make up for these deficiencies it has very 

 stout legs and feet with long curved claws, and a remarkably 

 elongated, probe-like bill, the nostrils of which are placed 

 near the tip instead of being close to the head as is the case 

 in most birds, an arrangement which permits it to " sniff 1 ' 

 for worms down their burrows. The kiwi's own burrow 

 is a short tunnel with an enlarged space at the end lined 

 with dry fern on which is deposited an enormous egg, which 

 weighs about a quarter as much as the bird itself, and is, in 

 proportion, the largest egg known. As in the other more or 



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