15 



kinds of Moas were comparatively small birds, from 3 ft. to 5 ft. high, and it seems probable that 

 the giants of the race, which attained a height of about 12 ft., had all died out before the advent 

 of man. At any rate, there is no record of any bones of Dinomis maximus or of Dinornis gigan- 

 tens having been found among the remains of Maori feasts."* 



Mr. A. D. Bartlett, the former Superintendent of the Zoological Gardens, who was the first 

 to differentiate this species, gives the following account of the breeding of a pair in his 

 charge : — 



They showed a desire to pair by the loud calling of the male, which was answered by the femlae in a 

 much lower and shorter note. They were particularly noisy at night, but were quite silent in the daytime. 

 The female laid two or three eggs, but as soon as she quitted the nest the male bird took to it, and remained 

 constantly sitting. By-and-by, the birds occupied the two opposite corners of the room in which they were 

 kept, the male being on the two eggs in the nest under the straw, while the female was 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 ; they were perfectly silent, and remained 

 apart. The eggs were found 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. He continued to 

 sit in the most persevering manner until he was exhausted, and he then left the nest. On examining the 

 eggs, no traces of young birds could be found, but Mr. Bartlett says that, notwithstanding this failure, there 

 was sufficient to show that the Kiwi's mode of reproduction does not differ essentially from that of the allied 

 Struthious birds, as in all cases that have come under his notice only the male bird sits. ' I have witnessed 

 the breeding of the mooruk, the cassowary, the emu and the rhea,' he says, ' and the mode of proceeding of 

 the Apteryx fully justifies me in believing the habits of this bird to be in no way materially different from 

 those of its allies.' 



From the body of a specimen I had received alive, from the wooded ranges inland of Mount 

 Egmont, I took several examples of a tick-parasite, which I at once handed over to Mr. W. M. 



* The late Professor T. J. Parker, in his valuable ' History of the Kiwi,' indicates generally that the ancestors of 

 Apteryx had the interrupted pterylosis, or feather-arrangement, characteristic of the Carinatae, and that once upon a time 

 their remarkable fore-limbs were true wings, which have been lost, probably for want of usage. A minor matter which, 

 to his mind, points to the same conclusion, is the fact that a sleeping Kiwi assumes precisely the same attitude as an 

 ordinary carinate bird, the head being thrust under the side feathers, between the body and the upwardly directed 

 elbow. " On the whole," he says, " it will be seen that the study of the development of the Kiwi tends to lessen the 

 gulf between it and ordinary birds, and to show that its ancestors probably possessed many of the more important and 

 distinctive features which cbaracterise the Carinatae of to-day. The facts clearly indicate that the founder of the 

 Apterygian house had interrupted plumage, functional wings, an ordinary avian tail, a keeled sternum, a double-headed 

 quadrate, lateral optic lobes, and a pecten in the eye ; in other words, that the ancestors of the genus were typical 

 flying birds, and not bird-like reptiles." As to the relation of the Kiwi to the other genera, Professor Parker finds that 

 it has been shown to be most nearly allied, as far as its skeleton is concerned, to the Moa, differing from it, however, 

 in many important respects. He says that it must certainly have been isolated at a very distant period, and, as far as 

 can be ascertained, some of its more striking peculiarities are distinctly co-related to its method of feeding. " Most 

 nocturnal animals have large eyes, suited for taking the utmost advantage of the semi-darkness," he concludes, " but 

 the Kiwi, finding its prey by scent alone, has developed an extraordinarily perfect olfactory sense, while at the same 

 time, having no need to keep watch against beasts of prey, its eyes have diminished in size and efficiency to a degree 

 elsewhere unknown in the bird class." 



Professor Newton says, in his ' Dictionary of Birds ' (p. 497) : — " Did space allow, much more should be said of 

 the Kiwi — perhaps to ornithologists the most interesting group of birds now existing, and the most interesting in 

 regard to the melancholy doom of extinction which almost inevitably awaits them ; but there is some consolation in the 

 thought that their anatomy and development have been admirably studied and described in the light of 

 existing scientific methods by Professor T. Jeffrey Parker (Phil. Trans., 1891, pp. 25-134, plates 3-19 ; 1892, pp. 73-84, 

 plates 7, 8). 



