108 The Mot-Mot. 



tails in this manner, which gives them a remarkable 

 appearance amongst all other birds. While we 

 consider the tail of the houtou blemished and defec- 

 tive, were he to come amongst us he would 

 probably consider our heads, cropped and bald, 

 in no better light." 



Dr. Murie, writing on the other side, said : 

 "The story has found credence that they nibble 

 off the occasionally absent vanes of the long middle 

 tail-feathers; but this notion has been contra- 

 dicted." This brought forth a reply from Mr. 

 Salvin, which can be found in the ' ' Proceedings of 

 the Zoological Society for 1873, and which appears 

 to us to be conclusive. He tells us that he noticed 

 a specimen which lived in one of the cages in the 

 Parrot-house all by itself, and adds, ' ' For a long 

 time its tail had perfect spatules ; but towards the 

 end of its life I noticed that the median feathers 

 were no longer trimmed with such precision ; and 

 on looking at its beak I noticed that, from some 

 cause or other, it did not close properly, but gaped 

 slightly at the tip, and had thus become unfit for 

 removing the vanes of the feathers." He wrote to 

 Mr. Bartlett on the subject, who replied, "During 

 the several years the mot-mot lived here I had 

 many opportunities of watching its habits, and I 

 have seen the bird in the act of picking off the 

 webs of the central feathers of its tail, and have 

 taken from the bottom of its cage the fragments of 

 web that fell from the bird's bill.. As the bird 

 lived here for some years, its bill got rather out of 



