BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 11 



Mr. A. D. Bartlett has written a valuable account of the incubation in 

 the Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 329, from which, as these volumes may not be 

 accessible to all ray readers, I give the following excerpt : — " In 1851 Lieut. - 

 Governor Eyre presented to the Society an Apteryx. This proved to be a 

 female of Apteryx mantelli. In the year 1859 she laid her first e,2,g, and has 

 continued to lay one or two eggs every year since that time. In 1865 a male 

 bird was presented by Henry Slade, Esq. During the last year these birds 

 showed symptoms of a desire to pair. This was known by the loud calling 

 of the male, which was answered by the female in a much lower and shorter 

 note. They were particularly noisy during the night, but altogether silent 

 in the daytime. On the 2nd of January the first egg was laid, and for a day 

 or more the female remained on the tgg ; but as soon as she quitted the nest, 

 the male bird took to it, and remained constantly sitting. On the 7th of 

 February the second egg was laid, the female leaving the nest as soon as the 

 egg was deposited. The two birds now occupied the two opposite corners 

 of the room in which they were kept, the male on the two eggs in the nest 

 under the straw, the female concealed in her corner, also under a bundle of 

 straw placed against the wall. During the time of incubation they ceased 

 to call at night, in fact were perfectly silent, and kept apart. I found the 

 eggs in a hollow formed on the ground in the earth and straw, and placed 

 lengthwise side by side. The male bird lay across them, his narrow body 

 appearing not sufficiently broad to cover them in any other way ; the ends 

 of the eggs could be seen projecting from the side of the bird. The male 

 continued to sit in the most persevering manner until the 25th of April, at 

 which time he was much exhausted, and left the nest. On examining the 

 eggs I found no traces of young birds. Notwithstanding the failure of 

 reproducing the Apteryx, I think sufficient has been witnessed to show that 

 this bird's mode of reproduction does not differ essentially from that of the 

 allied Struthious birds, in all cases of which that have come under my 

 observation the male bird only sits. I have witnessed the breeding of the 

 Mooruk, the Cassowary, the Emu, and the Rhea ; and the mode of proceeding 



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