Richard Wolfe is a cultural historian and curator who has written or co-authored some 40 books on themes from the moa to New Zealand art, including Footprints on the Land, Hellhole of the Pacific, and New Zealand's Lost Heritage. He was a display artist at the Auckland and Canterbury museums, and co-curated the first major exhibition of Kiwiana (a term he helped invent). Richard lives with his artist wife Pamela in Auckland.

Introduction 5

1 A land of birds: From Gondwana to Zealandia 10

2 The hidden bird of Ta ne 14

3 'A perfectly new genus': Discovered by science 26

4 Settlement from Europe: The kiwi under threat 44

5 Early symbols of identity: Kiwi in Fernland 54

6 'Rara Avis': A bird of the people 66

7 Kiwi at the Front: The patriotic Apteryx 80

8 Consolidation: The rise of kiwi symbolism in the 1920s and 1930s 92

9 Back to the Front: The kiwi during the Second World War 118

10 Aftermath: The post-Second World War kiwi 134

11 Mid-century: The 1950s kiwi 144

12 Cultural matters: Kiwi to the fore 160

13 The high-flying kiwi(fruit) 178 1

4 In survival mode: Conserving the kiwi 186

Notes 196

Bibliography 204

Index 206