3()() 



Mr. J. E. Hartin"- on rare or- 



The genus Anarhynchus, as the name would imply, differs 

 from every other in the large order Grallatores in the remark- 

 able conformation of the bill, which curves, not downwards as 

 in Numenius, nor merely upwards as in Recurvirostra, but to one 

 side, the extreme point being turned slightly upwards. This pecu- 

 liarity, which at first sight might seem to be a deformity, or the 

 result of an accident, is, it would appear, constant. When 

 MM. Quoy and Gaimard in 1830 published the "Zoologie" 

 of the ' Voyage de I'Astrolabe,' they referred to and described a 

 single specimen which had been obtained in New Zealand and 

 deposited in the Museum at the Jardin des Plantes. This spe- 

 cimen, which I have seen, is an immature bird in the plumage 

 above noted, and was figured (uncoloured) in the 'Planches^ to the 

 same voyage, published in 1833. From this plate Reichenbach 

 subsequently (1849) figured the head and leg only in his 'Avium 

 Systema Naturale,' {Gj'allatores, pi. xvii.). Mr. G. R. Gray in 

 his ' Genera of Birds ' has likewise figured the head and a sepa- 

 rate bill Up to the present time, howeverj the adult bird has 

 neither been figured nor described ; and as it differs materially 

 from the type-specimen in the Paris Museum, it has been thought 

 advisable here to give a plate (Plate VIII.) of it. The woodcut 

 of the bill will convey, better than 

 words, a just idea of the most remark- 

 able portion of the structure. 



In support of the statement that the 

 curvature of the bill is constant, we 

 have first the testimony of MM. Quoy 

 and Gaimard, who, in the work above 

 cited, make the following important 

 statement : " Nos chasseurs en tuerent 

 plusieurs qui avaient le bee recourbe 

 en haut, ct devie a droite. N^ayant 

 pu les conserver tons h cause de leur 

 mauvais etat, nous nous sommes con- 

 tentes de rapporter les mandibules 

 pour montrer que ces organes, dans 

 le seul individu que nous avons dcposQ au Museum, sont bien 

 dans leur etat naturel, et non le resultat d'un accident." 



