530 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



to know the character of the vegetation and other circum- 

 stances favourable to their existence. In size and form the 

 Merula vinitincta very closely approximates to the M. nestor 

 of Norfolk Island, but differs very considerably in its coloiu^ing. 



The male has the head and nape blackish-brovi^n ; upper 

 surface and wing-coverts reddish-brown ; wings brown mar- 

 gined with olivaceous ; tail brown ; throat dark bluish-grey ; 

 under surface vinaceous red ; bill bright gamboge-yellow ; 

 eyelash yellow ; tarsi and toes yellow. 



Total length 8 inches ; bill 1 ; wing 4 J ; tail 3f ; tarsi 1^. 



Family ? 



Genus NEOMORPHA, Gould, 



New Zealand claims for her avi-fauna the only species of 

 this highly curious form at present known, a form rendered 

 the more singular from the great difference in the develop- 

 ment of the mandibles in the two sexes. 



Sp. 6. NEOMORPHA GOULDII, G. B. Gray. 



HuiA. 



Neomorpha acutirostris, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part iv. p. 144. 



crassirostris, Gould, lb., p. 145. 



gouldii, G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, p. 12. 



Huia, Aborigines of New Zealand. 



Neomorpha g-ouldii, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. iv. pi. 19. 



Two specimens of this highly curious and anomalous bird, 

 male and female, wanting the legs and wings, were described 

 by me in 1836, when, from the great difference in the form 

 and length of their bills, I very naturally concluded that they 

 constituted two distinct species, many genera, even, having 

 been founded upon more trivial differences of character. Mr. 

 George Robert Gray, however, entertained a different opinion 



