CoLENso. — On the Bill of a Huia. 143 



"But what interested me most of all was the manner in 

 which the birds assisted each other iu their search for food, 

 because it appeared to explain the use, in the economy of 

 nature, of the differently formed bills in the two sexes. To 

 divert the birds, I introduced a log of decayed wood infested 

 with the hichu grub. Tliey at once attacked it, carefully probing 

 the softer parts with their bills, and then vigorously assailing 

 them, scooping out the decayed wood till the larva or pupa was 

 visible, when it was carefully drawn from its cell, treated in the 

 way described above, and then swallowed. The very different 

 development of the mandibles in the two sexes enabled them to 

 perform separate offices. The male always attacked the more 

 decayed portions of the wood, chiselling out his prey after the 

 manner of some Woodpeckers, while the female probed with 

 her long pliant bill the other cells, where the hardness of the 

 surrounding parts resisted the chisel of her mate. Sometimes 

 I observed the male remove the decayed portion without being 

 able to reach the grub, when the female would at once come 

 to his aid, and accomplish with her long slender bill what he 

 had failed to do. I noticed, however, that the female always 

 appropriated to her own use the morsels thus obtained. For 

 some days they refused to eat anything but huhu, but by de- 

 grees they yielded to a change of food, and at length would eat 

 cooked potatoe and raw meat minced up into small pieces." 



Dr. Buller also goes on to say that "Dr. Dieffenbach, in 

 forwarding his specimens of the Huia to Mr. Gould in 1836," 

 [error, lege, 1839-41] "wrote : — • These fine birds can only be 

 obtained with the help of a Native, who calls them with a shrill 

 and long-continued whistle, resembling the sound of the Native 

 name of the species. After an extensive journey in the hilly 

 forest in search of them, I had at last the pleasure of seeing 

 four alight on the lower branches of the trees near which the 

 Native accompanying me stood. They came quick as lightning, 

 descending from branch to branch, spreading out the tail and 

 throwing up the wings.'" (i.e.). From Dr. Dieffenbach seeing 

 four on that occasion, I have little doubt of their being two 

 pairs. 



Moreover, and in further confirmation of much of the fore- 

 going, I may briefly add what have at various times in past 

 years, while travelling, come casually under my own notice 

 respecting this bird. In some year in the decade of 1850 (I 

 forget the exact one), I was, as usual, returning on foot from my 

 annual journey to Wellington by the coast line, when one morn- 

 ing early, on the beach by the side of a small stream near Cape 

 Turakirae (the west head of Palliser Bay), I suddenly came 

 upon a single Maori, who had just then taken six of these 

 birds, three males and three females ; some were dead, killed in 

 the capturing, and some were still alive. He told me that he 



