BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND. ]7 



sufferings of the poor animal before its lingering death, painful even to 

 read of, perhaps would have had some remorse. A post mortem was made 

 by Mr. A. H. Garrod, the Prosector to the Society, and an able account of it 

 published by him and Mr. Frank Darwin (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 356). 



Mr. Potts writes, "The sitting pose assumed by various species of 

 birds is in itself a study not devoid of interest, either to the naturalist or 

 physiologist." The strength and thickness of leg in Apteryx haastii, as 

 compared with its body, is in direct proportion to the atrophy of the 

 aborted wing. In repose different attitudes are assumed by birds. The 

 Apteryx rests upon the tarsi, the converse of the practice of standing on one 

 leg common to many and opposite species, such as the Barn-Owl (^Aluco 

 Jlammeus) and the common Heron QArdea cinered), to whose habit Tennyson 

 refers in " Gareth and Lynette : " — 



" When the lone Heron forgets his melancholy. 

 Lets down his other leg, and, stretching, dreams 

 Of goodly supper in the distant pool." 



