Beaks and Bills 



249 



natives of New Zealand — in which not onl}^ is the bill 

 of the species designed for a special method of procuring 

 food, but the bills of the two sexes are very different in 

 form and use, and complement each other's methods. 

 Concerning the peculiar use of the bill in the Huia birds, 



Fig. 193. — Bill of Purple Finch and Crossbill compared; the latter specialized 

 for extracting seeds from pine-cones. 



Professor Newton writes: ''Its favourite food is the grub 

 of a timber-boring beetle, and the male bird with his short 

 stout bill attacks the more decayed portions of the wood, 

 and chisels out his prey, while the female with her long 

 slender bill probes the holes in the sounder part, the hard- 

 ness of which resists his weapon; or when he, having 

 removed the decayed portion, is unable to reach the grub. 



