Andrew Sorg, age 12, of Milwaukee, Wis„

The kiwi is the smallest of the ratite birds, members of the group Ratites which is coined from the Latin word for raft  These fellows have flat, raft‑shaped breast bones while most birds have keel‑shaped breast bones ‑ which you may notice when you dine on chicken  Only birds with keel‑shaped breast bones can fly ‑ which means that the kiwi is the smallest of the flightless birds 

The shy little bird is no bigger than a chicken, yet is cousin to the emu, the gawky rhea bird and the big, bad tempered cassowary  And he is cousin to the lordly ostrich, the biggest bird in the world  Some scientists think that the kiwi is very closely related to the giant moa birds who once lived in New Zealand  The moa birds stood nine feet tall but they were long ago hunted out of existence by the Maori natives of New Zealand  The kiwi bird is also a native of New Zealand  Perhaps he escaped extinction because he was too small to be of much use 

The strange little bird has a pear‑shaped body set on two sturdy legs  Ha has strong, three‑toed feet and his body is covered with what looks like long, shaggy dark hair  However, he is a bird and birds do not have hair  His shaggy, brownish grey coat is made from long, soft feathers  He has a very long, thin beak which has a pair of nostrils near the tip  The kiwi is one of the few birds who can smell well enough to find his food 

His food is mostly earthworms and insects which he digs in the ground, For dessert, he may eat a few berries  His eating is done at night when most of his enemies are asleep  He dozes during the day, curled up in a ball, like a fluffy kitten 

When the time comes Mrs  Kiwi scratches a hollow in the ground for a nest and lays one of two whites oval eggs  And they are very remarkable: eggs indeed, The little mother weighs up to nine pounds  Each egg weighs about three pound ‑  The ostrich, of course, lays a bigger egg  But for her size, Mrs, Kiwi lays the biggest egg in the world, one quarter as much as the bird herself

You might think that sash a big egg would be all ready to hatch into a baby chick  But this is far from so  The egg or eggs must be kept warm for about two and a half months  This is the incubation period which, for most birds, lasts but a few weeks  Mrs  Kiwi's work, goodness knows, is done when she lays her eggs  The fob of incubating is done by Mr  Kiwi  He has to sit on the eggs, keeping them warm under his silky feathers for from 70 to 80days,

A chick which takes so long to hatch should, you would thank, be all grown up when it finally comes out into the world  When the newly hatched kiwi is covered with proper kiwi feathers and at least one quarter as big as its Mama  But it is far from grown up  In fact, it takes three to four years for the young kiwi to be grown up enough to have chicks of its own