SEIZURE OF KIWIS.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13412, 9 May 1912, Page 3

SEIZURE OF KIWIS.

Some Now Zealand kiwis were taken by tho Moana to Sydnqy last week by a visitor, who intended to tnko thorn to England by the Orama, but thoy wer© seized <»n arrival in Sydney by Mr. Montgomery, Now Zealand Agent, under instructions from the Now Zealand Government. Thoy were nob allowed to remain long in Australia, states the "Sydney Morning Herald," being shipped back to New Zealand by the Winimera. Among tho most interosting and curious of living feathered creatures, the kiwi is becoming exceedingly raro in Now Zealand, which is the only country in which it is found. Not only is it wingless and tailless, not •only is it tho oddest looking of all birds, but there are several other remarkable features about the kiwi. For example, it lays an enormous egg, out of all provortion to the size of its body, the r -ales aro considerably smaller than the [■males, and only the males sit on tho

oggs. In-these, and in othor respects, it constitutes a curiosity in bird life

such as it not anywhere else- to bo ob-

taine-d. Tho birds,'which are nocturnal' j n their habits, livo in tho darkest and densest of forests, and at one time were plontiful in all tho wooded portions of New Zealand. In order to' save the kiwi from extinction, the Government hr.s convoyed a number to tho LittleBarrier Island and other bird sanctuaries, and has imposed heavy pcualties against hunting tho birds, while tbosc taking them out of the Dombinion render themselves liable to a line of . £50. Frequent surreptitious attempts to take the birds away arc made, over £200 apiece ■ having been offered in England for live specimens, and thus tho four secured by the visitor would have been worth about £1000 in England, though:he states that he was not taking them Home for sale,.but to liberate on his estate, in order to make a study of their habits, and to see whether the birds would thrive and multiply under the changed conditions.