The KIVI-KIVI (_Apteryx Australis_) has the plumage principally of a
greyish brown, which is darkest on the back. The wing-quills are soft
and rudimentary, and the face covered with soft hairs. This species is
thirty inches long; the bill, from the base of the forehead to the tip,
six inches; the reticulated tarsus two inches and a half; and the centre
toe, with the claw, three inches and five-eighths. The favourite resorts
of this bird, according to Bartlett, are localities densely covered with
fern, among which it can readily conceal itself; if very hard pressed by
the dogs usually employed in its capture, it takes refuge in crevices of
the rocks, hollow trees, and in the deep holes which it excavates in the
ground. In the latter chamber-like cavities it is said to construct its
nest, which is composed of grasses and dried ferns.
"While undisturbed," says Mr. Short, in a communication to Mr. Yarrell,
"the head is carried far back in the shoulders, with the bill pointing to
the ground; but when pursued it runs with great swiftness, carrying the
head elevated like the Ostrich. It is asserted to be almost exclusively
nocturnal in its habits, and it is by torchlight that it is usually hunted
by the natives, by whom it is sought after with the utmost avidity, the
skins being highly prized for the dresses of the chiefs; indeed, so much
are they valued that the natives can rarely be induced to part with them.
The feathers are also employed in the construction of artificial flies for
the capture of fish, precisely after the European manner. When attacked it
defends itself very vigorously, striking rapid and dangerous blows with
its powerful feet and sharp spur, with which it is also said to beat the
ground in order to disturb the worms upon which it feeds, seizing them
with its bill the instant they make their appearance; it also probably
feeds upon snails, insects, &c."
"The Apteryx," says Dr. Sclater, "is so scarce a bird even in New Zealand
that it can scarcely be expected that we should be well acquainted with
its mode of reproduction. His Excellency Sir George Grey has lately sent
me an extract from a letter addressed to him by T. E. Manning, Esq., dated
Hokianga, on the north-western coast of the Northern Island, February 2nd,
1863. 'Several years ago an old native, who had been a great Kivi hunter
in the times when the Kivis were plentiful, told me a strange tale about
the manner in which the bird hatches its eggs. I, of course, cannot vouch
for the correctness of the story, but think it worth relating; he said
that the Kivi did not sit like other birds _upon_ the egg, but _under_
it, first burying the egg in the ground at a considerable depth, and then
digging a cave or nest under it, by which about one-third of the lower
end was exposed, and so lying under the egg and in contact with the lower
end, which came, as it were, through the roof of the nest or burrow.
The appearance of the egg, which I propose to send, corroborated this
statement, for two-thirds of its length (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 the colour and condition of the ends of the egg
was quite remarkable, and well defined by a circular line passing round
the egg.'"
Mr. E. Layard has furnished Mr. Gould with the following information
on the same subject forwarded to him by Mr. Webster, also resident at
Hokianga:--"A fortnight ago," says that gentleman, "a native, out shooting
Pigeons, discovered a Kivi's egg protruding out of a small hole at the
root of a kauri tree; removing the egg, he put his arm to the elbow up the
hole and got hold of the parent bird. An old native who professes to know
something about them states that they lay but one egg at a time. The nest
is merely a hole scraped out by the bird, and generally about the roots of
a tree, where the ground is dry; the egg is covered with leaves and moss,
the decomposition of which evolves heat sufficient to bring forth the
young. The process takes six weeks. When hatched, the mother, by instinct,
is at hand to attend to her offspring. The egg of the Apteryx is unusually
heavy in proportion to the size of the female, being fully fourteen ounces
and a half in weight."