18 NATURAL HISTORY. 



habits, beyond mere fragmentary notices, I have thought the subject of sufficient interest to justify 

 my placing before the Society the following complete account of all that I have been able to ascertain 

 respecting it. The peculiar habits of feeding, which I have described from actual observation, furnish 

 to my own mind a sufficient 'reason' for the different development of the mandibles in the two 

 sexes, and may, I think, be accepted as a solution of the problem. 



" Before proceeding to speak of the bird itself, I would remark on the very restricted character of 

 its habitat. It is confined within narrow geographical boundaries, being met with only in the 

 Ruahine Tararua, and Rimutaka mountain-ranges, with their divergent spurs, and in the intervening 

 wooded valleys. It is occasionally found in the Fayus forests of the Wairarapa Valley, and in. the 



rugged country stretching to 

 the westward of the Ruahine 

 range, but it seldom wanders 

 far from its mountain haunts. 

 I have been assured of its 

 occurrence in the wooded 

 country near Massacre Bay 

 (Province of Nelson), but I 

 have not been able to obtain 

 any satisfactory evidence on 

 this point. It is worthy of 

 remark that the natives, who 

 prize the bird very highly for 

 its tail-feather? (which are 

 used as a badge of mourning), 

 state that, unlike other species 

 which have of late years 

 diminished and become more 

 confined to their range, the 

 Huia was from time imme- 

 morial limited in its distribu- 

 tion to the district I have 

 indicated. 



"My first specimen of 

 this singular bird (an adult 

 female) was obtained in 1855 

 from tlie Wainuiomata Hills, 

 a continuation of the Rimutaka range, bounding the "Wellington harbour on the northern side 

 the same locality from which Dr. Dieffenbach, neai-ly twenty years before, received the examples 

 figured by Mr. Gould in his magnificent work, ' The Birds of Austi-alia.' I have since obtained 

 many fine specimens, and in the summer of 1864 I succeeded in getting a pair of live ones. 

 They were caught by a native in the ranges and brought down to Manawatu, a distance of more than 

 fifty miles, on horseback. The owner refused to take money for them ; but I negotiated an exchange 

 for a valuable greenstone. I kept these birds for more than a year, waiting a favourable opportunity 

 of forwarding them to the Zoological Society of London. Through the carelessness, however, of a 

 servant, the male bird was accidentally killed ; and the other, manifesting the utmost distress, pined 

 for her mate, and died ten days afterwards. 



" The readiness with which these birds adapted themselves to a condition of captivity was very 

 remarkable. Within a few days after their capture they had become perfectly tame, and did not 

 appear to feel in any degree the restraint of confinement ; for, although the window of the apartment 

 in which they were kept was thrown open and replaced by thin wire netting, I never saw them make 

 any attempt to regain their liberty. It is well known, however, that birds of different species differ 

 widely in natural disposition and temper. The captive Eagle frets in his sulky pride ; the Bittern 

 refuses food, and dies untamable ; the fluttering little Humming-bird beats itself to death against the 



HUIA, ou XE\V ZEALAND WOOD-CROW. (After Keulemans.) 



