178 
1000 feet above the sea level, and only accessible when the sea 
is quite calm, which is situated in the Gulf of Hauraki, near 
Auckland, it is said to be still tolerably common. In the inha- 
bited portions of the southern districts of the Northern Island also, 
it lias become nearly exterminated by men, dogs, and wild cats, 
and is only to be found here in the more inaccessible and less 
populous mountain -chains, that is in the wooded mountains between 
Cape Palliser and East Cape. It is therefore not so easily obtained 
as we might suppose. Dieffenbach already mentions that during 
an 18 months’ stay in New Zealand (1840 — 1841), despite the 
rewards he promised the natives everywhere, he succeeded in ob- 
taining but one skin, and that in Mongonui Harbour, North of 
the Bay of Islands, from a European settler. 1 fared no better. 
I travelled through many a district on North Island, where accord- 
ing to the statements of the natives the bird still exists and is oc- 
casionally caught, but despite all my efforts was unable to procure 
a single specimen. 1 Of the attempts hitherto made to bring the 
peculiar bird alive to Europe, only one, to my knowledge, has 
proved successful. 2 In the Zoological Garden in London there has 
been since 1852 a live hen-kiwi, which is fed with mutton and 
worms. Its daily rations are half a pound of mutton, and it has 
already laid a number of barren eggs. The bird weighing not 
more than four pounds and a-half, lays an egg weighing 1 4 V 4 oz. 
and of an astonishing size. Taking this as a criterion, it is to be 
supposed , that the New Zealand Moas laid eggs as colossal as the 
famous egg of the giant-bird of Madagascar. 
There is as yet no second species of Kiwi known to exist on 
North Island. But the natives speak of sorts of Kiwi, which they 
1 The skins which the Zoologists of the Novara Expedition brought with them, 
they are indebted to our excellent German friend in Auckland, Dr. Fischer, who but 
very recently forwarded some additional specimens to Vienna. One of them had 
been presented to the captain on board alive but unfortunately died during the voy- 
age. In 1862 Mr. Buller of Wellington obtained two specimens of Apt. ManUlli at 
the sources of Wanganui; “at no little expense* he writes in his letter. 
2 Very recently the Zoological Society of London has received a pair of liv- 
ing Kiwis. 
