Apteryx

ap'te-riks, a singular bird of New Zealand. The name is Greek, signifying without wings, for its wings are reduced to mere stumps. It is allied to the ostrich and the emu. It lives amid the ferns. It is an awkward, wingless, tailless bird about the size of a domestic fowl, and is covered with streaked brown and gray hair-like feathers. It does not see well by day. The nostrils are situated in the very tip of the bill, which is flexible like that of a woodcock, to which its manner of probing the ground for worms, and habit of feeding at morning and evening twilight, suggest a farther resemblance. The female lays two smooth greenish-white eggs, larger than those of a goose, in a scantily-lined nest at the end of a burrow dug in soft ground. During the middle of the day the apteryx sleeps, rolled up in a ball, or stands at rest apparently leaning on its bill, the tip of which touches the ground. There are several species in New Zealand and adjacent islands. These birds are much sought after for food by the natives as well as by white men. The latter have introduced hunting with dogs, and will soon exterminate this curious bird.