A South Island Brown Kiwi (Apteryx australis) skeleton, 19th century

Kates Jacobs, ‘Bier Bones’, World of Interiors, December 2022, p. 103.

Interestingly, Kiwi’s do not have hollow bones.  Most flying birds have hollow bones to minimize weight for flight.  The kiwi’s bones though are filled with marrow like those of Mammals. They too have wings with little claws like bats. Most birds have a raised central keel on their breastbone,  to which their main flight muscles are attached.  Ratites however have a flat breastbone. This is Shown in Richard Own’s Memoirs of the Extinct wingless birds of New Zealand in 1897. Illustrates the absence of the keel inn Kiwi’s.