Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1905 — Kiwi the Oldest of Birds. [ARTICLE]

Kiwi the Oldest of Birds.

In New Zealand is found the klwL a strange bird of the ostrich family. Ostru-hes have two toes, but the extinct mans had three toes, so also have the existing emus, cassowaries and rheas or South American ostriches. The kiwi, however, differs from the other struthious birds ' r * having four toes. Further, the kiwi aunot be said to be quite ostrichlike, for in size it is not larger than an ordinary barnyard fowl. It has a small head, with aJarge and muscular neck ami a long, slender bill, with the distinguishing feature that the nostrils are placed close to its tip. The legs are short, but the muscles on the thighs are well developed and the feet are strong and powerful and provided with sharp claws. The kiwi is a bird devoid of any external trace of wings, and there is no trace of tail visible, while it is covered with long, narrow, hairlike feathers, and on the fore part of the- bead -and sides of the face are straggling hairlike feelers.