sufferings of the poor animal before its lingering death, painful even to read of, perhaps would have had some remorse. A post mortem was made by Mr. A.H. Garrod, the Prosector to the Society, and an able account of it published by him and Mr. Frank Darwin (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 356).
Mr. Potts writes, "The sitting pose assumed by various species of birds is in itself a study not devoid of interest, either to the naturalist or physiologist." The strength and thickness of leg in Apteryx haastii, as compared with its body, is in direct proportion to the atrophy of the aborted wing. In repose different attitudes are assumed by birds. The Apteryx rests upon the tarsi, the converse of the practice of standing on one leg common to many and opposite species, such as the Barn-Owl (Aluco flammeus) and the common Heron (Ardea cinerea), to whose habit Tennyson refers in "Gareth and Lynette:"—
"When the lone Heron forgets his melancholy.
Lets down his other leg, and, stretching, dreams
Of goodly supper in the distant pool."
