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67 



After a tramp on foot of nearly twenty miles through a 



haunts, and I was struck by the same peculiarities in its manners and general demeanour. In 

 the summer of 1867, accompanied by a friend and two natives, I made an expedition into the 



Euahine ranges in search of novelties, 

 densely wooded country, we were rewarded by finding the Huia. We were climbing the side of 

 a steep acclivity, and had halted to dig specimens of the curious vegetating caterpillar {Sphmna 

 rohertsii), which was abundant there. While thus engaged, we heard the soft flute-note of the 

 Huia in the wooded gully far beneath us. One of our native companions at once imitated the 

 call, and in a few seconds a pair of beautiful Huias, male and female, appeared in the branches 

 near us. They remained gazing at us only a few instants, and then started off up the side of the 

 hill, moving by a succession of hops, often along the ground, the male generally leading. 

 Waiting till he could get both birds in a line, my friend at length pulled trigger; but the cap 

 snapped, and the Huias instantly disappeared down the wooded ravine. Then followed a chevy 

 of some three miles, dowTi the mountain-side and up its rugged ravines. Once more, owing to 

 the dampness of the weather, the cap snapped, and the birds were finally lost sight of. I 

 observed that their mode of progression was similar to that of the Kokako, but far more rapid. 

 While in motion they kept near each other and uttered constantly a soft twitter. The tail was 

 partially spread, while the bright orange lappets were usually compressed under the rami of the 

 lower jaw. 



We camped that night near the bed of a mountain rivulet, in a deep wooded ravine, and 

 soon after dawn we again heard the rich notes of a Huia. Failing to allure him by an imitation 

 of the call, although he frequently answered it, we crossed to the other side of the gully, and 

 climbed the hill to a clump of tall rimu trees [Bacrydium cupressinum)^ where we found him. 

 He was perched on the high limb of a rimu, chiselling it with his powerful beak, and tearing off 

 large pieces of bark, doubtless in search of insects ; and it was the falling of these fragments that 

 guided us to the spot, and enabled us to find him. This solitary bird, which proved, when shot, 

 to be an old male, had frequented this neighbourhood (as we were informed by the natives) for 

 several years, his notes being familiar to the people who passed to and fro along the Otairi track 

 leading to Taupo. On asking a native how the Huia contrived to extract the huhu from the 

 decayed timber, he rephed, ''by digging with his pickaxe" — an expression which I found to be 

 truthfully descriptive of the operation ; and on dissecting this specimen I found an extraordinary 

 development of the requisite muscles. The skin was very tough, indicating, probably, extreme 

 age. The stomach contained numerous remains of coleopterous insects, of the kind usually found 

 under the bark of trees, also one or two caterpillars. In the stomach of another, I once dis- 

 covered seeds of the hinau (Mwocarpus dentatiis) and the remains of a small earth-grub. Dr. 

 Dieffenbach states that in the stomachs of his specimens he found hinau-berries, together with 

 dipterous and coleopterous insects. 



Of the nidification of the Huia nothing is at present known. I have been assured, however, 

 by a native, that he once found the nest of this bird in the cavity of a tree, that it contained two 

 young birds (a male and a female), and that they differed from the adults in having the w^attles 

 flesh-white instead of orange. 



The head of the female as figured in ' Nature ' (confessedly only a copy) is quite out of all 



e2 



