July 1 8, 1872] 



NATURE 



219 



familiar to the anatomist as the attachment of an ordinary- 

 muscle, instead of the highly developed crest common to 

 every other known Parrot. Prof. Huxley has even sug- 

 gested a doubt whether its sternum is ossified as in other 

 Cayinatu- ; but this seems an excess of caution on his 

 part, though we must admit that, until an investigator 

 such as Mr. Parker has had the opportunity of examining 

 an embryo, the question cannot be decided. 



Of the Kakas [Nestor) Mr. Duller admits three species 

 — Nestor iiuridionalis, N. occidciitalis, and N. notahilis — 

 the two first of which, we think, are barely separable. 

 This very remarkable genus of Parrots includes some two 

 or three other species, one of which, the N. productus cf 

 Phillip Island, is believed to have gone the way of so 

 many animals that only inhabit small islands, and the 

 same fate in all likelihood awaits its congeners. Most ani- 

 mals sufter from not being able to accommodate themselves 

 to changeof circumstances, but the very adaptability of the 

 Mountam-Kaka, or Kea, will tend to its early destruction ; 

 for, though belonging to the groups of Parrots distin- 

 guished by their brush-like tongue, and deriving a con- 

 siderable portion of their subsistence in a manner worthy 

 of the Golden Age from the nectar of flowers, this 

 wretched Kea {N. Hotabilis), since the introduction of 

 sheep to New Zealand, has incurred the imputation of a 

 fondness for mutton-cutlets A I' Abyssinic* , and the 

 charge, whether true or false, is likely to bring about its 

 doom, since the shepherd is apt to practise what in good 

 old times was called "border justice," and the species 

 will probably suffer extinction before its guilt is fully 

 proved or extenuating circumstances admitted. The Com- 

 mon Kaka {N. vieridionalis), on the other hand, is ably 

 defended by Mr. Buller as one of the most useful birds 

 in the country ; yet this also is rapidly diminishing. " In 

 some districts," he says, " where in former years they were 

 excessively abundant, their cry is now seldom or never 

 heard,' and though he adds that " in the wooded parts of 

 the interior they are as plentiful as ever," it requires no 

 prophetic eye to see that, with the extension of settle- 

 ments, the Kaka must succumb. 



The last bird we can especially mention is the Huia 

 {Hctcrn/oclia acutirostris), known to our readers by a 

 woodcut in these columns.t Mr. Buller, we must remark, 

 has unhappily referred it to the Hoopoes {Upupidcc) with 

 which, so far as we can see, it has nothing in common. 

 Mr. Garrod has lately informed the Zoological Society 

 that it belongs to the Starlings {Stiintida-), and there 

 can be little doubt that he is right in doing so ; but it 

 seems also to have some affinity to the Crows ; and it is 

 worthy of remark that one of its chief peculiarities, the 

 diversity of the bill according to sex, is shared to some 

 extent with an aberrant corvine form {Niicifraga. Ciuyo- 

 catactcs). A distinguished zoologist has said that " such 

 a divergence in the beak of the two sexes is very uncom- 

 mon, and scarcely to be paralleled in the class of birds. 

 It is difficult to guess at the reason of this, or to explain 

 it on Darwinian or any other principles." Now, to us 

 the difficulty does not seem greater than that presented 

 by any other sexual characteristic, and on Darwinian prin- 

 ciples the explanation is easy enough, if once the utility of 

 the difference is established. This last is well shown by 



• Nature, Oct. 

 t Nature, June 



1S71, and Feb. i, 187?. 



Mr. BuUer's remarks on a pair of caged Huias which 

 he kept for more than a year, and his account justifies 

 the belief that had previously been entertained about 

 them : — 



" But what interested me most of all was the manner 

 in which the birds assisted each other in their search for 

 food, because it appeared to explain the use, in the eco- 

 nomy of nature, of the differently formed bills in the two 

 sexes. To divert the birds, 1 introduced a log of decayed 

 wood infected with the huhu grub. They at once at- 

 tacked it, carefully probing the softer parts with their 

 bills, and then vigorously assailing them, scooping out 

 the decayed wood till the larva or pupa was visible, when 

 it was carefully drawn from its cell, treated in the way 

 described above, and then swallowed. The very different 

 development of the mandibles in the two sexes enabled 

 them to perform separate offices. The male always at- 

 tacked the more decayed portions of the wood, chiselling 

 out his prey after the manner of some Woodpeckers, 

 while the female probed with her long pliant bill the other 

 cells, where the hardness of the surrounding parts resisted 

 the chisel of her mate. Sometimes I observed the male 

 remove the decayed portion without being able to reach 

 the grub, when the female would at once come to his 

 aid, and accomplish with her slender bill what he 

 had failed to do. I noticed, however, that the female 

 always appropriated to her own use the morsels thus 

 obtained." 



Here we must pause. Mr. BuUer's book is in every 

 way worthy of its subject, and we trust that we have 

 shown that the subject is worthy of close attention — 

 whether we regard the various forms of New Zealand 

 birds from the point of view of their intrinsic interest, or 

 from that of so many being now on the verge of extinction. 

 It is easy to be wise after the event, and ornithologists 

 at home do not in these days look back affectionately 

 towards their predecessors who have let so many species 

 pass away without tracing the process of extermination. 

 We have above hinted at some of the causes of extinction 

 which seem to be at work ; and most of them, it is to be 

 feared, are insuperable : but there is another, and possibly 

 more powerful cause which is entirely under control. 

 This is the silly mania for "acclimatisation" which has 

 been so warmly fostered by many well-meaning though 

 ill-advised persons, both at home and in the colonies, and 

 nowhere more than in New Zealand. The English Ac- 

 climatisation Society fortunately came to an end, and 

 before it had time to do any harm here ; but its example 

 has been mischievous in our dependencies. In a reckless 

 way animals of extremely doubtful advantage have been 

 transported to the antipodes, and there it seems impos- 

 sible to deny that they will in a few years be found not 

 only ousting the kinds which arc less specialised, and 

 therefore less able to meet them on an equal footing ; but, 

 unaccompanied by any of those checks which keep the 

 whole of a natural fauna balanced, the importations will 

 inevitably become the greatest of nuisances. The memory 

 of the patriotic Scot who could not live without his 

 thistles is not exactly blessed by Australians, and among 

 the pilgrim fathers of New Zealand who will ultimately 

 obtain an apotheosis, the members of their various 

 acclimatisation societies will, we suspect, scarcely be 

 reckoned. 



