OWEN'S APTERYX (_Apteryx Owenii_) has the face, head, and neck of a dull
yellowish brown; the throat somewhat paler; all the upper surface is
fulvous, transversely rayed with blackish brown, each individual feather
being silvery brown at the base, darker brown in the middle, then crossed
by a lunate mark of fulvous, to which succeeds an irregular mark of black,
and terminated with fulvous; the feathers of the under surface are paler
than on the upper, a circumstance which is caused by each feather being
crossed by three rays of fulvous instead of two, and more largely tipped
with that colour; the feathers of the thighs resemble those of the back;
the bill is dull yellowish horn-colour; the feet and claws fleshy brown.
The total length is eighteen inches; bill three inches and five-eighths,
breadth at base two inches and a quarter; the middle toe and nail measure
two inches and a half, and tarsi two inches and a quarter.
The above description is from a specimen sent to Mr. Gould in 1850;
since then he has obtained several others, all of which came from the
South Island of New Zealand. This bird, according to Mr. Gould, is
rendered conspicuously different from the _Apteryx Australis_, with
which it accords in size, by the irregular transverse barring of the
entire plumage, which, together with its extreme density and hair-like
appearance, gives it more the resemblance of a mammal than of a bird. It
has a shorter, slenderer, and more curved bill, and the feathers also
differ in structure, being broader throughout, especially at the tip, and
of a loose, decomposed, and hair-like texture.
"In the spurs of the Southern Alps, on Cook's Straits, in the province
of Nelson," says Dr. Hochstetter, "that is, in the higher wooded
mountain-valleys of the Wairau chain, and westward of Blind Bay, in the
wooded mountains between the Motucha and Aorere valleys, this species is
still found in great numbers. During my stay in the province of Nelson I
had two living examples, a male and a female; they were procured by some
natives I sent out for the purpose in the upper wooded valleys of the
river Slate, a confluent of the Aorere, in a country elevated from 2,000
to 3,000 feet above the sea-level."
As might naturally be expected, these interesting but defenceless birds
are rapidly becoming extinct; a few, however, may still be found in
the more unfrequented and thickly-wooded parts of the Northern Island
of New Zealand. From the inhabited districts they have been completely
extirpated; indeed, Dieffenbach tells us that during the eighteen months
of his residence in New Zealand, notwithstanding the liberal rewards
promised to the natives, he only succeeded in procuring a single skin, and
even that was obtained from a European settler, who said that he procured
it from Mongonui Station, to the northward of the Bay of Islands.
Among the localities where the Kivi is still obtainable may be mentioned
Little Barrier Island, a small, wooded island in Hauraki Bay, near
Auckland, which is evidently the top of a high mountain, rising some 2,383
feet above the level of the sea, and only approachable in the calmest
weather.
There seems to be little difficulty in keeping these birds in a state
of captivity, and in the Gardens of the London Zoological Society, in
the Regent's Park, several specimens have been successfully exhibited.
Their cage is simply a dark kennel, having in one corner a sufficient
quantity of straw, among which the birds remain carefully hidden during
the day. Should their keeper take them forcibly from their retreat,
they immediately run back again, as soon as they find themselves at
liberty, and eagerly cover themselves as completely as possible. After
sunset, however, they become quite lively and active, running about in
all directions, and probing the soft earth with their beaks, much after
the manner of a Woodcock. They readily devour finely-chopped mutton and
earthworms, consuming of the first-mentioned article of diet almost half a
pound a day.
[Illustration: THE NANDU, OR RHEA.]