3982 The Zoologist — May, 1874. 



protection of the old birds ; the family party is not necessarily 

 broken up, because all its members do not abide together in one 

 place of hiding and rest. There does not appear to be any reason 

 for believing kiwis to be great travellers ; ample supplies of food 

 are to be obtained by fossicking around their homes. Judging 

 from tracks, they appear to resort to the same holes for some time, 

 probably till the family has consumed the more favourite kinds of 

 food in the vicinity. Kiwis seem to adopt the same squatting 

 posture as the rowi, and are quite as lethargic, suffering themselves 

 to be captured without any other resistance than a feeble struggle, 

 in which, at worst, a scratch or two would punish incautious 

 handling. As for defence, the domestic cock or hen would be 

 terrible " as a raging lion " compared to this harmless bush fowl. 



They suffer from at least two races of parasites. December 17. — 

 Took a kiwi out of a log; very white skin, legs and feet: it was in- 

 fested with a species of Pedicnlus,* sandy in colour, and remarkably 

 active in its movements ; immediately below the chin hung a slatish 

 coloured species of Acarus, which maiutaiued a very firm hold and 

 was dislodged with difficulty. 



Sometimes the kiwi has been found very high up on the ranges, 

 not very far below the snow it is said, but always in the bush. 



December 24lh. Took a kiwi from a rather deep hole beneath a 

 fragment of rock, just within the scrub-bush, about a mile westward 

 of the Franz Joseph glacier; about two miles further to the west, 

 near the north bank of the Waio river, found a pair of kiwis in a 

 hole under the roots of a large konine {Fuchsia excorticaia). This 

 pair of birds gave the following measurements: — 



Female. Male. 



Bill from gape 4 in. 3 lines. 3 in. C lines. 



Tarsus 2 „ C „ 2 „ 2 „ 



Middle toe and claw - - - - 2 ,, C „ 2 „ 6 „ 

 Total length 18 „ „ 17 „ C „ 



It will be observed from these dimensions that the female slightly 

 exceeds the male in size, and thai this disparity is most noticeable 

 in the length of the bill. It is also commonly said that the female 

 kiwi is the larger bird, and dissection of se^ eral specimens confirmed 



* I shall esteem it a great favour if any of my New Zealand correspondents will 

 send me parasites of any suckler or bird : they may be dropped into small phials 

 containing a dessert-spoonful of sawdust and a morsel of cyanide of potassium as big 

 as a pea. — E, Newman. 



