54 APPENDIX: NO. XLII. 
went away with an impression that it was worn naked at the base in 
this individual, a mistake which I was afterwards able to account 
for by the greyish colour of the feathers on the fore part of the face. 
The length of the whiskers and the arrangement of the scales above 
the bend of the foot, showed that it was of the species which 
Mr. Bartlett has separated under the name of A. Mantelli*, as he 
himself has assured me he had ascertained it to be, even before he 
saw it, by merely feeling the wing, and so learning the nature of the 
little feathers upon it. Therefore also it is fortunately ‘of the same 
species as the various specimens described with such care and success 
by Professor Owen, under the name of A. australis, but different from 
the original A. australis of Shaw, which was so cleverly restored by 
Mr. Yarrell. The length of the beak makes it appear probable that 
our bird is a female’, if, as Professor Owen is inclined to believe, 
the sexes can be distinguished by this character. 
To return to the box, which sonie time ago we supposed to be 
opened. If he has not lately been disturbed, our friend, upon his 
bed of straw, is usually in a position which it is not at first sight easy 
to understand, so that any one who has not studied it as often 
guesses wrong as right, when asked upon which side of the body the 
head is placed. He is rolled into a somewhat oval shape, and nothing 
is presented to view but what has, from a little distance, the general 
appearance of hair mixed with bristles. In this assemblage of 
singular feathers, for so, upon closer inspection, they turn out to be, 
there are seen at one end of the body certain lines and centres of 
divergence, which afford a clew to the mode in which it is packed. 
On a more inquisitive examination the arrangement is found to be 
such as I shall endeavour to describe. The feet are bent under the 
body, of which the principal part of the weight reaches the ground 
at the tarso-tibial joint; the claws are contracted, probably by 
the action of the perching muscle described by Professor Owen 
as not absent in this terrestrial bird. The great size of the 
thighs gives considerable elevation to the hind part of the body, and 
in front the little rudimentary wings rest against the knee, if | may 
so call the femoro-tibial joint. The neck takes a turn downwards and 
then upwards, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right side of 
the body ; the head, facing backwards and pressed to the side, lies above. 
the wing, and the beak is placed along and supported by the upper side 
of the left or of the right thigh, as the case may be. In this position 
the point of the beak, close to which the nostrils are situated, reaches 
nearly through the feathers at the hinder part of the back, so that the 
breathing is unimpeded. The head is in its proper horizontal position, 
and the eye on the side away from the body may sometimes be seen 
peering through the overhanging feathers. In the hollow space formed 
by the bend of the neck, a number of the feathers of the body protrude 
1 Proc. Zool. Soe. 1850, p. 275.—Ep.] 
? (This proved to be true, for the bird in 1859 laid an egg, the first of several 
afterwards produced (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p, 850).—Ep. | 
