Zoological Society of London

“ Its food consists of fern-roots, which it digs up with its bill, and the outer covering of the leaves of flax, which it obtains by drawing the leaves between the mandibles and leaving the flax behind. They are not gregarious, more than two never being found together, except a pair of young ones, which appear to stop with the old birds until they have attained the size of their parents. ”

“ The larger kind are nearly the size of the Emu's; they are somewhat long in form and blunt at the ends; their colour is a dirty white. They are deposited in a burrow on a nest formed of roots and sticks, and a few of the bird's own feathers. ”