Sydney Porter—Notes on New Zealand Birds 133


sharp nails, a single kick of which can rip open a man’s hand or

foot.


The Kiwis are strictly nocturnal, only coming out after dark

and spending the night in probing in the soft earth for worms and

insects upon which they feed. They move noisily through the

vegetation and their continual sniffing can be distinctly heard.

Before day-break the birds retire to their comfortable burrows,

either in a hollow log of some large tree lying prone upon the

ground or else to a cavity in the roots of some giant forest tree.


My first acquaintance with the Kiwis was on the Little Barrier

Island where they were almost tame. Some of them had been

released there many years ago and they do not seem to have moved

very far from the spot where they were originally liberated. From

what we saw of them the birds seemed to prefer the open grass flats

near the shore to the higher forests which, according to most books,

is the natural habitat of the Kiwi. An hour or so after darkness

had fallen these strange, unbirdlike creatures could be seen ambling

along through the grass. One had only to stand still for a few

minutes to be aware of their noisy progress through the herbage.

When overtaken the birds would break into a peculiar ambling

run, swaying from side to side.


On the flats it was very easy to catch them, but not so on the edge

of the forest, for the bird, after running a few yards, would hide

in a clump of ferns or forest debris, or I have seen them press

up against the roots or the trunk of a tree and try to escape

observation in that way. In our hunting for the birds we used a

powerful electric torch which strangely enough did not seem to

dazzle or inconvenience them in any way.


Kiwis make a nest either under a pile of brushwood in a hollow

log or in a clump of tangled grass and fern or in a cavity at the

base of a hollow tree. One or two enormous eggs are laid, each

often weighing a quarter the total weight of the bird. How it

manages to lay such colossal eggs is a mystery. These are incubated

by the cock bird who, not being able to cover them, lies across

them.


Kiwis must be long-lived birds, for a large albino example



