KIWIS. 
57i 
powerful claws as weapons of defence. . . . When hunting for its food the bird 
makes a continual sniffing sound through the nostrils, which are placed at the 
extremity of the upper mandible. Whether it is guided as much by touch as by 
smell I cannot safely say; but it appears to me that both senses are called into 
action. That the sense of touch is highly developed seems quite certain, because 
KIWI FEEDING. 
the bird, although it may not be audibly sniffing, will always first touch an object 
with the point of its bill, whether in the act of feeding or of surveying the ground ; 
and when shut up in a cage or confined in a room, it may be heard, all through the 
night, tapping softly at the walls. The sniffing sound is heard only when the kiwi 
is in the act of feeding or hunting for food; but I have sometimes observed the 
bird touching the ground close to or immediately round a worm which it had 
