5 58 PASSERI FORMES 



the male courts the female like a Pigeon. The nest, a sort of basin 

 of mud with a straw lining, is fixed on a horizontal branch, and 

 contains from four to seven yellowish-white eggs with olive and 

 purplish-brown markings. Struthidea frequents pine tracts, and has 

 similar habits and nest, the eggs being white with red-brown and 

 grey blotches. In Heteralocha ^ acutirostris, the New Zealand Huia, 

 the female has a remarkably long, curved bill, that of the male 

 being short, stout, and nearly straight. The plumage is greenish- 

 black, with a white-tipped tail ; the bill is whitish, the feet are blue- 

 grey, the large rictal wattles orange. This bird frequents wooded 

 gullies in the Nortli Island, seldom ilying above the foliage, but 

 bounding or hopping along the ground or upon the branches. 

 Natives attract and noose it by imitating the whistling note. 

 The cock chisels away the decayed bark, and the hen probes the 

 crevices for insects ; " huhu " caterpillars and berries varying the 

 main diet. The nest, of dry grass, leaves, and stalks, is placed in 

 hollow trees, the eggs being apparently whitish, with or without 

 brown and grey spots. Creadion carunculatus, the Saddle-back 

 of the same country, is black, with chestnut back, rump, wing- 

 and tail-coverts, and small yellow or red gape-wattles. It haunts 

 wooded hills, hopping actively or moving spirally up the trunks and 

 branches, while the flight is short, rapid, and laboured. The notes 

 may be soft and sweet, or noisy and shrill ; the food resembles 

 that of Heteralocha. The nest of dry leaves, ferns, fibres, moss, 

 and bark is built in hollow trees or large ferns, the three or four 

 greyish -white eggs shewing purplish-brown markings. 



Podoces includes four desert species, with elongated, strong, 

 curved, and pointed bills ; long, stout legs ; short, rounded wings ; 

 and moderate square tails. The colour is fawn, grey, and brown, 

 generally with black and white wings and black tail ; F. hender- 

 soni and P. hiddulphi have a black cap, the former shewing white 

 spots on it, P. panderi has a black throat-patch, P. Inimilis is 

 brown with whitish nape and lower parts. They haunt sand- 

 hills covered "with saxaul (Anabasis ammodendron) or tamarisk, 

 from Transcaspia to Tibet, running swiftly, occasionally flying- 

 like a Jay, feeding on the ground upon insects, their larvae, and 

 seeds, uttering harsh reiterated Woodpecker-like cries, and making 

 a nest of twigs lined with Imrk, grass, and hair in low trees, bushes, 

 or rarely holes in the ground. The four eggs are greenish-grey 



^ This genus and the two next perhaps belong to the Sturnidae. 



