"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."
MANTELL'S APTERYX.
MANTELL'S APTERYX (Apteryx Mantelli) is smaller than the above bird, the plumage darker and redder, the wing smaller, and formed of strong thick quills, and the face covered with long, straggling hairs; the tarsus is longer, and scutellated in front, and the toes and claws shorter than in the A. Australis. The length of the body is twenty-three inches; the bill measures four, the tarsus two inches and three-quarters, and the centre toe, with claw, two inches and a half. An unmated female, in the London Zoological Gardens, several times laid an egg, in all about nine, and, according to Mr. Layard, manifested a strong desire to sit, placing herself upon the egg, and resisting all attempts to remove her from her position. This Apteryx, and the A. Australis, are regarded by Gould as belonging to the same species.
OWEN'S APTERYX.
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.