OUR OWN ANIMALS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIX, Issue 13113, 29 April 1903, Page 4

OUR OWN ANIMALS.

THE ANCIENT HOUSE OP APTERYX. A BIRD OF MANY PARTS. (Specially written, for the “Lyttelton Times.’’) (Copyright.) In the unavoidable absence of the moa by extinction, the kiwi is the most notable living bird of New Zealand, and should be classed among the colony’s treasured possessions. It is an anomaly. "While it has been aptly described by Dr Wallace as one of the queerest and most unbird-like of birds, it represents several widely different orders in its structure, which, is on a heterogenous plan. Professor Owen pays that it seems to have borrowed its head from! the longbilled waders, its legs from the gallium, which include the domestic fowls and other Bcratchers, and its wings from the struthious order, which includes the ostrich and similar birds. There is very little that we do not Know about the kiwi. Not a toorte in its frame or a muscle on its ungainly body, and hardly a feather in its hair-l'ike plumage, has escaped minute and elaborate description. Its innermost private life has been invaded; and its habits', its clumsy gait, its wretchedly defenceless-con-dition, its deformities and malformations have been made public. The only thing that is hidden from us is its origin, which is still a matter of speculation, though it is certain that the family Apte-rygidce has a very ancient lineage. At first glance, the kiwi’s body seems to be covered with hairs instead of feathers ; outwardly, it has neither wings nor a tail; and the position of its nostrils at the tip of its long and slender beak, instead of at the base, constitutes one of its most distinguishing features. Its olfactory organs are remarkably perfect, and it has a keener Dense of smell than is possessed by any other living bird. Its eyes, however/ are email'and inefficient, differing remarkably from those of other birds by the absence of a vascular membrane called the pecten. The female is considerably larger than the male, and the largeness of the egg she lays is out of all proportion to the size of the bird. When the trunk is stripped of its plumage, Professor Owen also remarks, the body presents the form of an elongated cone gradually tapering forwards, from the broad base formed by the haunches to the extremity of the attenuated beak ; and the wings appear as two small crooked appendages, projecting about an inch and a half from the sides of the thorax, and terminated by a curved, obtuse, homy claw, a quarter of an inch long. The kiwi, which has been called Apteryx (wingless), and belongs to the struthious order, has been placed in the nub-class ratitm, together with the rhea, the emu, the cassowary and the moa. This is Professor Huxley’s second division of birds. It derives its name from the raJt-like or flattened character of the breast-bone, which does not possess a prominent keel. All other living birds belong to the sub-class carinatte, and their breast-bone is provided with a keel, to which the pectoral or wing muscles are attached. Professor T. J. Parker, in his “History of the Kiwi,” derila with evidence which seems to him to indicate that the ancestors of Apteryx had the interrupted pterylosis, or feather-arrangement, characteristic of 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 yrhich, 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, tho head being thrust under the side feathers, between the body aiw tho upwardly directed elbow. “ On the whole,” he says, “it will bo seen that the study of the development of the kiwi tends to ’lessen the gulf between it and ordinary birds, and to show thaK -Re ancestors nro-

bably possessed many of the more important and distinctive features -which chairaoterise the carinatra 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 allocators 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 a't a. very distant period, and, as far as can bs ascertained, some of its more striking peculiarities are distinctly co-related to its method of feedmg. “ Most nocturnal animals have large eyes, suited for taking the utmost advantage of the semi-darkness,” he concludes, “ bub tiic 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 thb bird class.” Captain Hutton states that the Apterygids have a more generalised structure than ■ the other struthious birds, and that they - therefore belong to an older type and can- | not with any degree of correctness be said ! to represent the extinct moas. The kiwi’s mode of reproduction excited a great deal of interest and controversy before its habits became well known. Sir Oeorgo Grey, in 1863, forwarded to Hr i Schlftter, in England, a letter he had re- j ceived from a gentleman in Hokianga, who j said:- —“Several years ago an old hative, | who had been a kiwi hunter in the times when kiwis were plentiful, told me a strange tale about the manner in which the kiwi | hatches its eggs. I, of course, cannot j vouch for the correctness of the story, but ' think it worth relating. He said that the kiwi did not- sit, 113 m ether birds, upon the egg, but under it, first burying the egg in the ground-to a considerable depth, and then digging a cave or nest under it by which about one-third of the lower end was expflsed, raid so lying under the egg and in contact with the lower end, which cams, as it were, through the roof of the nest or burrow. The appearance of the ; egg, which I propose to send, corroborated , the statement, for two-thirds of its length, i the small end, was perfectly clean and ; white, and about one-third, the large end, : was very much discoloured and very greasy, evidently from contact with the body of , the bird. The difference in colour and con- j dition of the ends of the eggt was quite j remarkable and well defined by a circular j line passing round the egg.” | Mr A. H. Bartlett, Superintendent of ' the Zoological Society’s Gardens in Lon- ’ don, endeavoured to put these statements to a test by m-eaus of two kiwis. They showed a desire to pair by the loud calling of the male, which was answered by the female 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, tho birds occupied the two opposite corners of the room in which they were kept, tho 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 nob 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 ba 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 1 and the rhea,” be says, “ and tho mods 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.” The Rev J. G. Wood, in his “Natural History of Birds,” says that the eggs laid at tho London Zoological Gardens by Apteryx australis arc indeed wonderful, for tho bird weighs just a little more than, four pounds, and each egg weighs fourteen or fifteen ounces, its length being 4j{in and its width rather more than 2in. An egg of Owen’s apteryx in the Canterbury Museum, obtained from the West Coast, measures 4Ain in length, with a breadth of 27-12 in. The eg g of an Apteryx mantelli has measured over Sin in length and oin in breadth. It has been found necessary to divide the article on the kiwi into two. The other part, dealing more minutely with the bird’s habits, will appear next week.