THE CROW TRIBE 1499 



species, nor does it associate with other kinds of birds, living for the most part in 

 couples, which presumably pair for life, and constantly associate together, sub- 

 sisting upon the insects and other food to be found in the vicinity of their favorite 

 sand hills. Unlike its congener, the plain-colored chough thrush, the present 

 species is a handsome bird, and attractive in appearance; the upper parts of the 

 adult being clear gray; the wings white, with black at the base and at the tip; while 

 the tail is glossy purplish black; the throat whitish; a large black patch adorns the 

 fore-neck, and the lower parts are viiiaceous, fading into white. 



The genus Heteralocha includes a single species, variously referred 

 to the hoopoes and crows; while Garrod considered its relations to be 

 most intimate with the starlings, a view also adopted by Sir Walter Buller and Dr. 

 Sharpe. The bill of the male is rather short and straight, and acutely pointed, with 

 the sides compressed, and the nostrils at its base; while, in the female it is long, 

 curved, and slender; the difference being so great that the two sexes were at first 

 regarded as distinct species. The wings are long and rounded. The huia bird (H. 

 gouldi}, which is peculiar to New Zealand, has an extremely restricted habitat, 

 being confined to certain mountain ranges, with their divergent spurs, and the inter- 

 vening wooded valleys. The natives, who prize the bird very highly for its tail 

 feathers, which are used as a badge of mourning, state that, unlike other species 

 which have of late years diminished and become more confined in their range, the 

 huia has from time immemorial been limited in its distribution to its present haunts. 

 Sir W. Buller, who comments on the readiness with which the huia becomes recon- 

 ciled to the loss of its liberty, so long ago as 1864 received a pair of these birds from 

 a native in exchange for a valuable stone. They were fully adult, and had been 

 caught in the following simple manner. Attracting the birds by an imitation of 

 their cry to the place where he lay concealed, the native, with the aid of a long rod, 

 slipped a running knot over the head of the female and secured her. The male, 

 emboldened by the loss of his mate, suffered himself to be easily caught in the same 

 manner. When liberated in a large room, writes their owner, "it was amusing to 

 notice their treatment of the hu-hu. This grub, the larva of a large nocturnal 

 beetle, which constitutes their principal food, infests all decayed timber, attaining 

 at maturity the size of a man's little finger. Like all grubs of its kind, it is fur- 

 nished with a horned head and horny mandibles. On offering one of these to the 

 huia, he would seize it in the middle, and, at once transferring it to his perch, and 

 placing one foot firmly upon it, he would tear off the hard parts, and then, throwing 

 the grub upward to secure it lengthwise in his bill, would swallow it whole. For 

 the first few days these birds were comparatively quiet, remaining stationary on 

 their perch as soon as their hunger was appeased, but they afterwards become more 

 lively and active, indulging in play with each other, and seldom remaining more 

 than a few moments in one position. I sent to the woods for a small branched tree, 

 and placed it in the centre of the room, the floor of which was spread with sand and 

 gravel. It was most interesting to watch these graceful birds hopping from branch 

 to branch, occasionally spreading their tail into a broad fan, displaying themselves 

 in a variety of natural attitudes, and then meeting to caress each other with their 

 ivory bills, uttering at the same time a low affectionate twitter. . . . But what 



