778 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



New Zealand, that land of oddities in Nature, adds another to 

 our list in this place. I refer to the species called the liuia by the 

 native Maoris, Owing to the fact that the bill is entirely different 

 in the two sexes, the male and female have been referred to two 

 distinct species (Fig, 9). Newton says : " According to the per- 

 sonal observation of Sir W. Buller, who enters at length on the 

 natural history of the huia (Birds of New Zealand, second edi- 

 tion, vol, i, 23p, 7-17), its favorite food is the grub of a timber- 

 boring beetle, and the male bird with his short, stout bill attacks 

 the more decayed portions of the wood and chisels out his prey, 

 while the female with her long, slender bill probes the holes in 

 the sounder part, the hardness of which resists his weapon ; or 

 when he, having removed the decayed portion, is unable to reach 

 the grub, the female comes to his aid and accomplishes what he 

 has failed to do. The huia is entirely a forest bird, and is doubt- 

 less one of those doomed to extinction, though at present it seems 

 to maintain its existence. Except a white terminal band on the 

 tail, the whole plumage in both sexes is black, with green metal- 

 lic gloss ; the bill is ivory white, and the large rounded wattles at 

 the gape are of a rich orange " (Dictionary of Birds, part ii, p. 

 438). 



Before concluding I will refer to one or two more of the puz- 

 zling outliers to be found among the passerine birds, and none 

 of them have exercised the ornithologist more than the curious 

 little " scrub birds " of Australia. Shortly after these were first 

 made known to science they were simply regarded as belonging 

 to the Australian warblers,* but after their internal structure 

 was examined it was found that they constituted quite a distinct 

 family, to which now the two species known have been relegated, f 

 So far as I am at present aware, neither the nest nor the eggs nor 

 even the female of either of the species of this family are known, 

 and the only birds supposed to be allied to them are the famous 

 "lyre birds" (see Fig. 10), also of Australia. These last are so 

 curious, both in their external appearance and in their internal 

 structure, that they have by various systematists and describers 

 been assigned to all sorts of positions and considered to have been 

 allied to widely separated groups. Originally thought to be a 

 " pheasant," and subsequently a " bird of paradise," and by Hux- 

 ley placed in a group by itself, the relationships of the Menura 

 were by no means unraveled until Newton took it in hand in 

 1875, more than three quarters of a century after its discovery, 

 and placed it in a distinct family the Menuridm of the great 

 passerine group. He also declared its alliance with the " scrub 

 birds," for which he created another family, the Airicliiidce, as 



* Maluridce. \ Atrichia clamosa, A. rufescens, family Atrichiidce. 



