Potts.—New Zealand Birds. 191 
-Nore.—December 24th. Took a kiwi from rather a 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 (Fuschia excorticata). 
This pair of birds gave the following measurements :— 
Hen. Cock. 
In. Lines. In. Lines. 
Bill from gape Pon iss ere eer 3.26 
Tamos eeed : a Ape Core yee A 
Middle toe st ce we Weer snes baie 2 j 
Total length i 1e p i 
It will be observed a these Po ahe that the hen slightly isa the 
cock in size, and that 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 several specimens confirmed this statement. In all cases we found the 
gizzards to contain a very considerable quantity of rough pieces of slate and 
quartz, also rarely a few very hard seeds. These stony fragments in a fair 
average gizzard weighed as much as 114} grains, five of the largest pieces 
weighing about five grains each. We believe the hard seeds had not been 
picked up for food, but for the purpose of trituration, probably in some 
locality where bits of stone were rarely met with. 
When the kiwi is deprived of its skin or feathers, immediately below 
the lower neck on each side at the base of the wings, there may be noticed a 
rather angular-shaped protuberance not unlike the mamma of certain animals, 
These are adipose deposits of very firm texture, which we incline to believe 
are of material assistance during incubation. The difficulty that has been 
felt in understanding how an egg so disproportionate in size can be successfully 
hatched by a bird not larger than an ordinary barn-door fowl has led to many 
curious surmises. According to Mr. Docherty the kiwi, with her egg 
deposited on the bare soil, proceeds with the labour of incubation by arranging 
the egg between the feet, its axis or long diameter being kept parallel to the 
body. Now, the keelless sternum being laid on the egg, with the prepectoral 
masses of fat pressing on its oval sweep between the bilge and blunt end, 
may it not be inferred that its monstrous bulk is thus kept from slipping, 
while receiving its due supply of heat. Being easily turned by rotary motion 
initiated perhaps by the feet, the warmth derived from these fatty tumours 
also makes up at one end of the egg for the entire covering of the opposite 
extremity by the body of the bird, and thus equalizes its temperature to a certain 
extent. The kiwi, when relieved by its mate, or when resuming its sitting 
attitude after food search, would but have to reverse the position previously 
