13 



This was in 1898 ; and I am glad to be able to report that the bird is still living in the 

 Society's Gardens, and appears to be in excellent health. 



This form is still comparatively abundant on the western side of the North Island. Mr. 

 Leith Fraser and his survey party lived almost entirely on Kiwis for several months while cutting 

 the bush lines. One day they found a female bird in a hole under a big rata with three lovely 

 little yellow-coloured chicks. He described them as being of the colour of ripe maize. I never 

 heard before of a clutch of more than two. He states that on one occasion, when they had been 

 without food for two days, excepting a little tea without sugar, a large fat Kiwi with a broken leg 

 came into the tent, and this bird supplied their party of four with food for two days. 



Captain G. Mair says they are still comparatively plentiful in the Wharekawa Eanges, 

 near the Thames. 



A brown chick of this species, which I purchased from Mr. Spencer, of Auckland, came from 

 Hokianga. 



The natives say that a Kiwi-hunting party at Taupo, in the winter of 1895, brought 

 in no less than eighty birds, including two pure albinoes. 



Mr. A. Sutherland, in his paper " On the Temperature of the Eatite Birds,"* says : — 



I received from Mr. Sclater and Mr. Bartlett courteous permission and a generous co-operation in 

 taking the temperatures of the three specimens [of Apteryx] now in the Gardens, and I wish to place on 

 record in the Proceedings of the Society that the Apteryx is the lowest in temperature of all birds 

 so far as yet has been recorded. 



The following were the rectal readings : — 



Mantell's Apteryx, male ... ... 37'4°. 



„ ,, young male ... 'dS'l . 



Haast's Apteryx, male.,. ... ... 38"1°. 



The average is 37-9° C. (100-2° F.) 



He speaks of Apteryx as being "structurally the lowest of birds." 



Mr. Pycroft writes from the Bay of Islands ( Trans. N.Z. Institute, vol. xxxi., p. 145) : — 

 " It is common in places, especially at Whangape and between Opua and Waimate. It is a frequent 

 occurrence for pig-dogs to secure one, and sometimes more, Kiwis during the day. Unfortunately, 

 birds caught by pig-dogs are generally torn and useless. The country for eight miles behind 

 Opua is very broken and wild, with heavy bush in the gullies, and there Kiwis will be plentiful 

 for some time, if not troubled by stoats and weasels. I have a perfect egg, which I felt in a Kiwi 

 obtained from a native. Thinking the egg would be broken if laid, I chloroformed the bird 

 and cut the egg out. It is perfect, and I have it yet. I have received eggs from July 

 until February, but the eggs I got in February contained fully developed and feathered 

 chicks." 



Captain Mair, in a letter dated July 17th, 1902, says : " Last month I was on the wooded 

 ranges near Miranda pigeon-shooting. I slept out one night and heard lots of Kiwi. Next 

 morning my young setter brought me a huge dead hen-bird. I never saw such fatness before. 

 I am told that they are really increasing in that district, which is a matter of wonderment, 

 seeing that the stoats and weasels are rapidly destroying all our other birds, pheasants in- 

 cluded." 



I have already given a full account of the Maori mode of catching the Kiwi. Mr. Elsdon 

 Best, in his ' Sketches from Tuhoeland,' adds the following : — " The Kiwi were also hunted with 

 dogs by the food-seeking Maori, though the term whakangau (to hunt with dogs) is only applied 



* Proc. Zool. Soc, 1899, p. 787. 



