40 Capt, F. AV. Huttou on certain 



state that it resembles in habits the Golden Plover of Europe, 

 this is very unlikely to be the case. He also makes no men- 

 tion of the only specimen contained in any New-Zealand col- 

 lection, viz. that in the Auckland Museum, which was pre- 

 sented by Dr. Buller himself, but without any mention of the 

 locality. 



Anarhynchus frontalis. 



I cannot follow Mr. Potts and Dr. Buller in thinking that 

 the bent bill of this bird is useful in enabling it " to follow 

 up retreating insects by making the circuit of a water-worn 

 stone with far greater ease than if it had been furnished with 

 with a straight beak.^' In the first place, unless the bird is 

 also furnished with some means of seeing round a comer, it 

 would not be able to see the insect it wanted to catch ; in the 

 second place, the bird is just as common in the sandy bed of 

 the Waikato, and on the mud-flats of the Manukam harbour, 

 where there are no stones, as it is in the shingle beds of the 

 rivers of the south island ; and, in the third place, I have often 

 watched the bird feeding and never yet saw it run round a 

 stone more than any other bird might do. 



It seems to me that a bill bent on one side would be very 

 useful to a bird whose usual food was either minute but nu- 

 merous organisms, such as Diatomaeese &c., or small animals 

 hidden among fine algas &c. ; for by slightly inclining its head 

 it could lay a considerable part of its bill flat on the ground, 

 and thus, in the first case, take up a much larger quantity of 

 those minute organisms at a time, or, in the latter, could 

 search over a greater extent of algse for creatures that it could 

 not see, than if it used only the point of the bill. The broad 

 bill of the Duck performs the same office in a diff'erent man- 

 ner. I by no means assert, however, that this is the use of 

 the peculiar shape of the bill ; for I have had no opportunity 

 of observing one through a telescope when feeding, neither 

 have I examined the contents of the stomach to ascertain on 

 what they feed ; but it must be remembered that the curve in 

 the bill would not prevent the bird from eatiug insects and 

 other animals also. 



