To see the Apteryx at home, we should have to travel to far New Zealand, and to hunt with infinite patience when we got there. Apteryx-hunting, it has been found, to be successful, must be done by the help of dogs. Sir Walter Buller has written some very spirited accounts of such hunts. Europeans, indeed, have been singularly successful in this hunting, whereby they have done much to enhance the value of this bird by hastening its fast approaching and inevitable extermination.
Photo by Robert D. Carson, Esq.] [Philadelphia.
OWEN'S KIWI, NEW ZEALAND, SOUTH ISLAND.
This is the smallest of the kiwis.
The natives call this bird the Kiwi, from its call-note, "ki-i-wi." These cries are uttered during the early hours of the night, ceasing after midnight. They appear to have great penetrating power.
CHAPTER II.
THE GAME-BIRDS AND RAILS.
It is not easy in a few words exactly to define a "game-bird." Anatomical details aside, the most characteristic features are the small head and moderately long neck, and a compact body, in which the wings, when folded, are almost entirely concealed. The hind toe is always present, and the claws are adapted for scratching purposes—that is to say, for scratching up the surface of the ground in the search for seeds as food. The wings are hollowed so as to fit close to the body, and the flight, which is noisy and never long-sustained, is nevertheless often exceedingly rapid. The young are hatched covered with down, and able to run in a few hours after birth.