THE ZooLocist—J ung, 1872. 3085 
night in a country where there are no indigenous predatory quadrupeds, 
would render flight a superfluous exertion, and a faculty of no special 
advantage in the struggle for existence. Thus, it may be reasonably 
inferred that disuse, under the usual operation of the laws of nature, has 
occasioned this disability of wing; for there is no physiological reason why 
the kakapo should not be as good a flyer as any other parrot. 
* Conformably also with the doctrine of natural selection, we have here 
another striking instance of the law of assimilative colouring, which obtains 
more or less in every department of the animal kingdom. Nature has 
compensated this bird for its helplessness, when compelled to leave its 
hiding-place in the daytime, by endowing it with a mottled plnmage so 
exactly harmonizing with that of the green mosses among which it feeds, 
that it is almost impossible to distinguish it."—P. 29. 
The kaka parrot has already been made so familiar to my readers 
by the interesting and detailed account of him from the pen of Mr. 
Potts (S. S. 2799—2802 and S. S. 2853—2855) that I need add 
nothing from Dr. Buller’s pen, but passing on to the huia (Hetera- 
locha acutirostris) T will make a few short extracts. 
“ An article in ‘ Nature’ (June 23) bearing the initials of a well-known 
naturalist, notices the arrival of a living example of the huia (Heteralocha 
gouldi) at the Zoological Society’s Gardens, London. The specimen was a 
male bird, and the writer in describing the peculiarity in the form of the 
bill that distinguishes it from the female, observes :—‘ Such a divergence in 
the structure of the beak of the two sexes is very uncommon, and scarcely 
to be paralleled in the class of birds. It is difficult to guess at the reason 
of it, or to explain it on Darwinian or any other principles.’ 
7% * 3k BS * % * *% 
“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 satisfactory 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 inter- 
yening wooded valleys. It is occasionally found in the Fagus 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 
SECOND SERIES—VOL. VII. QE 
