Apteryx
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Apteryx. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a genus of birds, the typical one of the family apterygida. Two species are known the A. australis and A. mantelli, both from New Zealand. The natives call the former Kiwikiwi, which is an imitation of their peculiar cry. The A. australis is somewhat less in size than an ordinary goose. It runs when pursued, shelters itself in holes, and defends itself with its long bill; but unable as it is to fly, it is destined to become extinct.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts assumed the bird was doomed: Aiton's in 1910 warned that hunting with dogs "will soon exterminate this curious bird," and Collier's in 1921 flatly called it "destined to become extinct." It did not go extinct. Kiwi remain threatened — introduced stoats, cats and dogs kill most chicks in unmanaged forest — but sustained conservation, including predator-free offshore islands, fenced sanctuaries and the practice of hatching eggs in captivity and returning grown birds to the wild, has held or lifted several populations, and killing kiwi is long illegal. Two other claims have also shifted: five species are now recognised rather than the two Collier's knew, and DNA work published in 2014 identified the kiwi's closest relatives as Madagascar's extinct elephant birds rather than the ostrich and emu, implying its flightless ancestors reached New Zealand by flying there.
Written for this edition, 2026.