364 



1870 I had the pleasure of forwarding several live examples of the Apteryx to the Hamburgh 

 Consul at Wellington, for transmission to the Zoological Society of Berlin ; and one of these 

 afterwards furnished the subject of the following notice in the minutes of the Wellington Philo- 

 sophical Society*: — 



" Dr. Hector drew the attention of the meeting to an interesting specimen of an egg of the 

 Kiwi taken in utero. He stated that the bird from which the specimen had been taken belonged 

 to Mr. Krull, and had recently died. It had been presented to the Museum ; and on being 

 skinned, it was found to contain a fully formed egg, the large size of which had evidently been 

 the cause of the death of the bird. He considered the specimen unique and setting at rest all 

 doubt as to whether the Kiwi really lays an egg so disproportionately large to the size of the 

 body of the bird." 



The period of gestation in this bird appears to be unusually protracted ; and one of my 

 captives, for the space of forty days before extruding her egg, moved about with evident difficulty, 

 being apparently unable to stand upright, resting the weight of the body on the heel of the 

 tarsus, and walking in a staggering manner. She laid a very large egg on the 22nd March, 

 recovered her full activity on the following day, moped on the next, and died on the 25th. 



An egg of this species, obtained at Whangaroa, is broadly elliptical in form, measuring 

 5-3 inches in length by 3T in breadth, with a granulate surface, or, more correctly, covered with 

 minute puncta, and of a creamy-white colour, more or less stained. The one I have described is, 

 of course, a very large example. They vary not only in size, but also in form ; and on the latter 

 point I have the following note from Mr. Kirk : — " During a recent visit to Maretai I was shown 

 an egg of the Kiwi decidedly ovoid, widest in the middle, and tapering towards each extremity 

 in a remarkably uniform manner ; and I have since seen eggs of a similar shape obtained at 

 Whakatane. But the egg we have in the Auckland Museum [measuring 5*25 inches by 2 - 85] is 

 of a different shape, very little wider in the middle than at one fourth the total length from each 

 extremity." 



Some examples are nearly pure white, with a smoother surface ; others, again, are marked 

 with small excrescences, and with irregular furrows or interruptions in the granulation of the 

 shell. 



* Trans. New-Zealand Inst. 1870, vol. iii. p. 73. 



