Page:DawsonOrnithologicalMiscVol1.djvu/47

Rh Mr. A.D. Bartlett has written a valuable account of the incubation in the Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 329, from which, as these volumes may not be accessible to all my readers, I give the following excerpt:—"In 1851 Lieut.-Governor Eyre presented to the Society an Apteryx. This proved to be a female of Apteryx mantelli. In the year 1859 she laid her first egg, and has continued to lay one or two eggs every year since that time. In 1865 a male bird was presented by Henry Slade, Esq. During the last year these birds showed symptoms of a desire to pair. This was known by the loud calling of the male, which was answered by the female in a much lower and shorter note. They were particularly noisy during the night, but altogether silent in the daytime. On the 2nd of January the first egg was laid, and for a day or more the female remained on the egg; but as soon as she quitted the nest, the male bird took to it, and remained constantly sitting. On the 7th of February the second egg was laid, the female leaving the nest as soon as the egg was deposited. The two birds now occupied the two opposite corners of the room in which they were kept, the male on the two eggs in the nest under the straw, the female concealed in her corner, also under a bundle of straw placed against the wall. During the time of incubation they ceased to call at night, in fact were perfectly silent, and kept apart. I found the eggs in a hollow formed on the ground in the earth and straw, and placed lengthwise side by side. The male bird lay across them, his narrow body appearing not sufficiently broad to cover them in any other way; the ends of the eggs could be seen projecting from the side of the bird. The male continued to sit in the most persevering manner until the 25th of April, at which time he was much exhausted, and left the nest. On examining the eggs I found no traces of young birds. Notwithstanding the failure of reproducing the Apteryx, I think sufficient has been witnessed to show that this bird's mode of reproduction does not differ essentially from that of the allied Struthious birds, in all cases of which that have come under my observation the male bird only sits. I have witnessed the breeding of the Mooruk, the Cassowary, the Emu, and the Rhea; and the mode of proceeding