Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE KIWIS, OR WINGLESS BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND

(Order Aplerygiformes)

F the many strange birds found in various parts of the world, perhaps none is more curious and generally interesting than the Kiwis, or so-called Wingless Birds of New Zealand. They are, for the great group to which they belong, birds of small size, being only as large as or slightly larger than a domestic fowl.

They have a rounded, compact body, a rather short neck, and small head, while the bill is very long, slender, slightly curved, and bears the small slit-like nostrils near the tip, the latter a condition not found in any other birds.

The base of the bill is covered by a hard cere and surrounded by numerous long, stiff bristles. They have relatively very powerful thighs and legs, the latter covered with scales of various sizes, and four toes, three of which are directed forward, and one, very short one, backward; all the toes are provided with claws which are long, strong, and acute.

The plumage is fluffy and quite hair-like in appearance, each feather being pointed and composed of separate loose filaments; there is no aftershaft. It was formerly supposed that the feather covering was continuous over the body, but it is now known that there are several small bare spaces.

The wings are not quite absent, as the name implies, but are extremely aborted, consisting of a rudimentary humerus and one complete digit. There are, however, no definable wing-quills, and in fact the wings are entirely concealed by the plumage of the back; they are of course useless for flight and the birds are practically”wingless.”

The reduced condition of the wing is further emphasized by the fact that the sternum is without a keel. The tail is also practically concealed, there being no tail-feathers. In color the plumage is brown or grayish brown, barred across with lighter, or with each feather dark on the margins and lighter along the middle.

As a structural character of importance it may be mentioned that Mr. Beddard has recently noted the presence of a very large oil-gland, which in many particulars is quite unlike that of any other bird. Instead of consisting of two lobes or sacs located a little way from the end of the tail, as in most birds, there is a single very large gland with two nipples which form the very extremity of the bird.           

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