The Zoologist— May, 1874. 3985 



this fact at all surprising to those acquainted with it, for although 

 the meat is coarse it has a gamey flavour. We found the kiwi made 

 excellent soup and stew, flavoured with pepper and salt, a few- 

 leaves of Drimys, tender shoots of Rhipogonum and ScheflSera 

 digitata, or piki-piki (the young curled tops of Asplenium bulbi- 

 ferum). The gizzard is especially delicate, very unlike that de- 

 cidedly tough organ of the domestic fowl. Mr. Docherty reports 

 the eggs to be excellent eating. 



This bird, it is said, exists in great abundance in the " Sound 

 country" of the S.W. coast, but we fear that an evil day is at hand 

 for those quaint denizens of the ancient forest; the requisitions of 

 diggers, of collectors for museums, and the cruel slaughter by dogs, 

 they might outlast for years ; these causes are rapidly thinning their 

 numbers, but they are not suddenly sweeping the Apteryx from the 

 face of the earth. The new source of danger, it is said, arises from 

 "that deformed thief. Fashion." A demand is springing up for 

 the skins to furnish material for muffs for frivolous women ; 

 although the thought may seem far-fetched, who knows but this 

 female vanity may be the means of modifying the serene climate of 

 the West Coast, by causing the extermination of an ancient race 

 of insect-eaters, usefully employed as preservers of the forest. How- 

 ever much, on economical grounds, we may question the right or 

 policy of permitting the extirpation of so useful a check on insect- 

 life, in this colony a strong protest against such barbarity cannot 

 be expected ; a few lovers of Nature might raise their voices against 

 it, but their words would fall unheeded unless backed by general 

 opinion from without our little sphere. Instead of protest it is 

 more likely that some blatant announcement would be circulated of 

 the establishment of a new local industry. It would not be the first 

 instance of living on destruction which could be euphemistically 

 explained as " subduing the wilderness." That the race of the 

 Apterygidae is indeed ancient is proved by their being found on 

 islands separated by deep channels from the mainland. 



Before concluding these remarks on the straight-billed kiwi it 

 should be stated that specimens obtained south of the Waitaroa 

 river, in Westland, present some differences of plumage by which 

 they can readily be distinguished from skins in the Canterbury 

 Museum, which were obtained in the neighbourliood of Hokitika. 

 The birds from the northerly districts have a more flocculent plu- 

 mage, lighter in tone than those which are found in the country 



