CROW TRIBE. 



3 2 7 



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

 adult beino- clear grey; 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 vinaceous, fading into white. 



Tie Huia Bird. 



paxdeb's CHOUGH-THRUSH {{ nat. size). 



The genus Retercdocha 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 (if. govZdi), which is peculiar to New Zealand, has an 

 extremely restricted habitat, being confined to certain mountain - ranges, with 

 their divergent spurs, and the intervening 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 com- 

 ments on the readiness with which the huia becomes reconciled 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 



