438 



HUM 



Heteralocha} and very remarkable for the sexual difference in the 

 bill, Avhich is so great as to have led Gould to describe the male 

 and female as distinct species {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1836, pp. 144, 145). 

 First referred, like so manj'' other curve-billed birds, to the Upupidx 

 (Hoopoe), it was placed by Prof. Cabanis in 1850 {Mus. Hein. i. p. 

 218) among the Corvidse, but Garrod after dissection (Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1872, pp. 643-647) found its relation to the Sturnidse (Starling) 

 to be very intimate, and its structure clearly not allied to the 

 Corvidm, among which, however, Dr. Sharpe included it in 1877 

 {Cat. B. Br. Mus. iii. p. 143) though the year before {Voy. 'Erebus' 

 and 'Terror,' App. p. 27) he had followed Garrod. Probably the 



IIuiA, Female and Male. (From Buller.) 



right view, as indicated by Prof. Cabanis's remarks on this very 

 subject (loc. cit.), is that it is an ancient and generalized form, which 

 cannot really be assigned to any of the more differentiated 

 Families. According to the personal observation of Sir W. Buller, 

 Avho enters at length on the natural history of the Huia (B. N. Zeal. 

 ed. 2, i. pj). 7-17), its favourite food is the grub of a timber-boi'ing 

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

 decayed portions of the wood, and chisels out his ])rey, while the 

 female with her long slender bill probes the holes ia 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 doubtless 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 is 

 in both sexes black, with a green metallic gloss : the bill is ivory- 

 white, and the large r9unded wattles at the gape are of a rich orange. 

 1 Originally named by Gould Neomorpha, a term -whicli was preoccuiDied. 



