28 



Failing to allure him by an imitation of the call, although he frequently 

 answered it, we ci-ossed to the other side of the gully, and climbed the hill to 

 a clump of tall limu trees [Dacrydium cupressinum), where we found him. He 

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

 tearing oS" large pieces of bark, doirbtless 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 to be an old male, had frequented this 

 neighbourhood, as we were informed by the natives, for several yeai-s, his notes 

 being fomiliar to the people who passed to and fro along the Otairi track, 

 leading to Taupo. On asking a native how the Hxiia contrived to extract 

 the huhu from the decayed timber, he replied, "by digging with his pick-axe" — 

 an expression which I found to be truthfully descriptive of the operation ; and 

 on dissecting this specimen I found an extraordinaiy 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 

 iisually found under the bark of trees, also one or two caterpillars. In the 

 stomach of another, I once discovered seeds of the hinau {Elceocarpus dentatus) 

 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 kno-mi. 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 wattles flesh-white instead of 

 orange. 



Mr. Gould, who was the first to characterise the genus {Froc. Zool. Soc, 

 Part iv., p. 144), was deceived by the great difierence in the form of the bill, 

 and treated the sexes as distinct species, naming them respectively Neomoiyha 

 crassirostris and iV. acictirostris, — a very natural mistake, " many genera even," 

 as Mr. Gould observes, " having been founded iipon more trivial differences of 

 chai'acter." Mx\ G. R. Gray having determined their identity, proposed to 

 substitute the specific name of Neomorpha Gouldi, in compliment to the original 

 describer. The generic term has since been changed to Heteralocha, and the 



Huia continues to be the sole representative of this anomalous genus. 



The head of the female as figured in Natiore (confessedly only a copy), is 



quite out of all natiiral proportion to that of the male, and is apt to give a 



false idea of its relative size and thickness. 



In the generality of specimens, and in the published drawings that have 



hitherto appeared, the bill is of a yellowish horn colour, but this instead of 



being natural is caused by the decorajposition of the animal matter inside. 



I have succeeded in retaining the ivory whiteness of the bill, in preserved 



specimens, by treating them after the manner recommended by Waterton for 



