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is such that it can hardly be relaxed : water has little effect upon it. It resembles leather, and is 
more like the skin of a mammal than that of a bird.” 
From time to time live examples of the Apteryx have been received by the Zoological Society ; 
and the following notes by Mr. Bartlett, on the incubation of this biid in the “Gardens (B. Z. S. 
1868, p. 329), are worth quoting: — 
“ In 1851 Lieut.-Governor Eyre presented to the Society an Apteryx. This bird proved to he a 
female. In the year 1859 she laid her first egg, and has continued to lay one or two eggs every year 
since that time. In 1865 a male bird was presented by Henry Slade, Esq. During the last year 
these birds showed symptoms of a desire to pair. This was known by the loud calling of the male, 
which was answered by the female in a much lower and shorter note. They were particularly noisy 
during the night, but altogether silent in the daytime. Ou the 2nd January the first egg was laid, 
and for a day or more the female remained on the egg ; but as soon as she quitted the nest the male 
bird took to it, and remained constantly sitting. On the 7th of February the second egg was laid, 
the female leaving the nest as soon as the egg was deposited. The two birds now occupied the two 
opposite corners of the room in which they were kept, the male on the two eggs in the nest under 
the straw, the female 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 — in fact, were perfectly silent, and kept 
apart. I found the eggs 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 appealing not sufficiently 
broad to cover them in any other way; the ends of the eggs could be seen projecting fiom the side of 
the bird. The male continued to sit in the most persevering manner until the 25th April, at which 
time he was much exhausted, and left the nest. On examining the eggs I found no traces of young 
birds. Notwithstanding the failure of reproducing the Apteryx, I think sufficient has been witnessed 
to show that this bird’s mode of reproduction does not differ essentially from that of the allied 
struthious birds, in all cases of which, that have come under my observation, the male bird only sits. 
The enormous size of the Kiwi’s egg has often been the subject of speculation and comment ; 
for, till the fact was established beyond all question, it seemed almost impossible that the very large 
eggs occasionally brought in by the natives were the produce of this bird. In the spring of 1870 1 
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 fur- 
nished the subject of the following notice in the minutes of the Wellington Philosophical 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 
w'alking 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. 
Since the foregoing pages were written, for my former edition of this work, I have had an 
opportunity of seeing the Kiwi in its home, and of studying the natural history of the species in its 
wild state. 
* Trans. N.-Z. Inst. 1870, vol. iii. p. 73. 
