51�Թ�

Among birds, the emeu, the cassowary, and the apteryx are species rapidly vanishing; amongst quadrupeds, the kangaroo—the platypus: others slowly, but not less surely.

The wing of apteryx, like that of the cassowary, has become extremely reduced.

In short, the British Innkeeper, as these writers represent him, figures as a sort of human apteryx, who supports himself entirely by the length of his bill.

Allied to these are the four species of Kiwi or apteryx, still existing there.

It is this bird which is also known under the name of the "apteryx."