WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



of explaining the existence of a pouch in the fore part of 

 the neck, etc., in some of the old male birds of this species, 

 viz. that some of the membranes in this part of the bird 

 have become ruptured by the excessive enlargement that 

 takes place during the violent paroxysms to which the 

 males are subject on the approach of the breeding season; 

 I have seen them with throats enlarged to an extraordinary 

 extent, the pinions of the wings lowered to the ground, 

 while the points of the primaries are crossed over their 

 backs, and in this distorted state they rush on and attack 

 each other, giving one reason to imagine that these delicate 

 membranes at such a moment may give way and produce 

 the abnormal condition so often alluded to as being found 

 m old males. As a further proof of the probability of this 

 being the true explanation, I call attention to the great 

 difference in size and form of the so-called pouches, as 

 given by different observers. 



The fluid contained in the pouch would also be thus 

 fully accounted for, if my hypothesis be correct. 



OWENS APTERYX. 



The AfUryx Oivenii. — As its name carries with it one 

 of which every Englishman ought to be proud, we feel 

 called upon to give rather a full account in the first notice 

 of this singular family of wingless birds. Captain Barclay, 

 of the ship Providence, brought from New Zealand, about 

 the year 1812, the skin of a bird which Dr. Shaw, the 

 naturalist and ornithologist of that day, figured and de- 

 scribed as the Apteryx aitstralis in the Nahcralist's Mis- 

 cellany. After the death of Dr. Shaw the specimen passed 

 into the possession of the late Earl of Derby, whose fine 

 collection now belongs to the town of Liverpool, having 



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