KIWIS. 



571 



powerful claws as weapons of defence, . . . When hunting for its food the bird 

 makes a continual sniffing sound through the nostrils, which are placed at the 

 extremity of the upper mandible. Whether it is guided as much by touch as by 

 smell I cannot safely say ; but it appears to me that both senses are called into 

 action. That the sense of touch is highly developed seems quite certain, because 



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KIWI FEEDING. 



the bird, although it may not be audibly sniffing, will always first touch an object 

 with the point of its bill, whether in the act of feeding or of surveying the ground ; 

 and when shut up in a cage or confined in a room, it may be heard, all through the 

 night, tapping softly at the walls. The sniffing sound is heard only when the kiwi 

 is in the act of feeding or hunting for food ; but I have sometimes observed the 

 bird touching the ground close to or immediately round a worm which it had 



