Page:Picturesque Dunedin.djvu/118

104 Along the western side of this gallery are the foreign birds, among which may be noticed that enemy of snakes, the secretary-bird, so-called from its pen-like tuft of feathers on each side of the head, the brilliant, if not very elegant, trogon of Central America, and the horn-bills. The huge bills of these birds, although composed of bone, are very light, owing to the presence of extensive air cavities.

Conspicuous among these foreign specimens are the little humming-birds of South America, which, sporting in the sunshine of their native land, rejoice in a hundred such fanciful yet suggestive names as "sunbeam," and "golden light."

At the end of this row of cases is a cast of the now extinct dodo, and near it, its nearest living ally, a pigeon found only in Samoa.

Then come the New Zealand birds. Strangers will be struck at the majestic appearance of the large albatrosses, and near these are some fine specimens of shags. One of them, the Imperial shag, is especially brilliant.

New Zealand possesses a surprisingly large number of birds capable of flight, but many of the ground-feeders, having no natural enemies from which to escape by flying, have lost this power, and hence such examples as the weka and the kakapo. Although the latter has large wings, it has scarcely any keel to the breast-bone. This shows the absence of large muscles capable of moving the wings and supporting the bird in flight. It is a matter of regret that many of the fine birds of New Zealand, handicapped by the loss of the power of flight, are in all probability doomed to early extinction, owing to the introduction of enemies from which they are unable to escape. A skeleton is shown of an extinct goose, which, judging from its small wings, and the absence of keel, must have been incapable of flight; and there is also a skeleton of an extinct duck found near Alexandra. Close by is, perhaps, the most interesting of this class of birds, the takahe, or notornis, which, if not quite extinct, is very nearly so. Only a few specimens of it have been obtained, and these at widely distant periods, and the skeleton shown, although imperfect, must be regarded as a treasure. This bird also could not fly. There are two paintings