Vol. XIV. 

 191S 



] FiNCKH, Notes on Kagiis (Rhinochetus jubatus). i6q 



After 36 days (exactly the same period as in 1905) the egg 

 hatched. It was three months later in the season, though, the 

 birds apparently becoming used to our seasons. The warmer 

 weather at this time of the year made my expectations run high. 

 The egg chipped (one puncture only) on the 33rd day ; at noon on 

 the 36th day no further alteration had taken place ; at 2 p.m. 

 I found the chick in the nest, quite dry. I could not find the 

 shell or remains anywhere about the nest. On the following day, 

 however, I discovered small parts of the shell 25 feet away. They 

 could not have got to the spot by accident, as there were several 

 foot-high obstacles between it and the nest, and the fragments 

 lay there as if they had been hidden. One of the birds must have 

 carried them there, in order, i)erhaps, that there should be no 

 sign that a young bird was in the vicinity. 



The head of the young Kagu is very large indeed — out of pro- 

 portion to the body — being one-third the size of the latter. 



The parents, when feeding the chick, did not apparently know 

 which was the head ; if they got no response on offering food at 

 one end they would try the other. They endeavoured, to feed 

 their offspring on the day of its birth, but it did not take food until 

 the second day. 



During the first few days the chick opened its bill and the 

 parent birds put worms in ; afterwards the chick took food from 

 the beak. On the fourth day it accepted worms 4 inches in 

 length. On the fifth day it swallowed a large cockchafer grub 

 with the greatest ease. From the third day this helpless chick, 

 with great effort, wandered several times each day some 2 feet 

 from the nest, and returned almost immediately. This behaviour 

 puzzled me, until I noticed that it left the nest for sanitary pur- 

 poses. The distance increased as the bird became stronger. When 

 five days old the chick left the nest occasionally ; when ig days 

 old it ran about, and on the 29th day picked up food accidentally 

 dropped by the parents when feeding it. 



It fed on worms, snails, and slugs, of which it ate from 50 to 

 80 a day. After the third week it almost preferred finely-cut 

 raw beefsteak to anything else ; in the fourth week it ate at one 

 meal, twice a day, as much meat as I was in the habit of giving 

 the two adult birds, besides many worms, &c., in between It 

 was always hungry, and its size doubled in less than a week. 



To see the parents feed the chick was charming, their patience 

 being limitless. Though hungry, they would not take any food 

 themselves until the chick refused to accept more. I saw them 

 each trying to coax the young bird to take more food for at least 

 ten minutes before they ate it themselves. When the chick was 

 satisfied, occasionally they would " talk " to it, then hold the 

 food, not to the mouth, but always before the eye, even pushing 

 it in the eye. 



Each parent desired to do the actual feeding. If one was given 

 a worm, it carried it to the chick, and its mate would take it out 

 of the bill and offer it to the young bird. If the chick did not 



