96 



A consideration of the natural features of its favoiivite haunts permits us 

 to indulge iii surmises as to the convenience and adaptability of its remarkable 

 form of beak for obtaining its food. Where we have seen it has never been 

 far from watei", and if, as we presume, this bird is peculiar to this country, we 

 can point to our larger river beds as affording it admirable feeding grounds. 

 These rapid shallow streams are pei-petually wandering and shifting in their 

 coui'se, cutting new channels after every freshet, whether occasioned by heavy 

 rainfalls or by the melting of snow from the alpine crests of the " back country." 

 Anyone acquainted with our " plains " must have observed, here and there, 

 how certain parts (termed by geologists, " fans "), are thickly covei^ed with 

 stones — as, for instance, some miles below the Gorges of the Rakaia or 

 Rangitata ; — however unpromising or useless they may appear to the 

 inexperienced, the practical grazier is aware that those stones assist in keeping 

 the ground cool, and in retaining beneath them a certain amount of moisture 

 which, during the drier portion of the year (when the parching north-west 

 winds prevail), thus invigorates the thirsty rootlets of many valuable grasses, 

 and the result is the maintenance of a fair number of sheep on this rather 

 barren-looking stretch of country. When any of these stones are disturbed 

 from their bed, wdio can have failed to notice the commotion produced amongst 

 the insect community thus suddenly disclosed to view ; what scuttling ensues 

 to gain fresh concealment from the garish light of day. In a somewhat similar 

 manner, after a stream has deserted its temporary bed, in all probability 

 numerous forms of aquatic insect life, .attracted by the moisture, are to be 

 found in the sand in which the shingle lies half imbedded. The horny point 

 of the bill of this bird, from its peculiar form, is sufficiently strong to be used 

 for thrusting between and under stones and pebbles. 



The flexibility of the upper mandible derived from the long grooves and 

 flattened form (extending to nearly half its length), tends materially to assist 

 the bird in fitting its curved bill close to a stone, and thus aids it in searching 

 or fossicking around or beneath the shingle for its food, while at the same time 

 the closed mandibles would form a tube throiigh which water and insects could 

 be drawn tip, as water is sucked up by a syringe. As the flexure of the bill is 

 lateral, the bird is enabled to follow up i-etreating insects, by making the circuit 

 of a waterworn stone with far greater ease than if it had been furnished with 

 the straight beak of the plover, or the long flexible scoop of the avocet. 



The inspection of these specimens must clear away any little cloud of 

 doubt that might remain on the minds of persons iinfamiliar with the bird, 

 and convince them that this singular form of bill, so far from being an acci- 

 dental deformity, is a beautiful provision of Nature, which confers on a plover- 

 like bird the advantage of being able to secure a share of its food from sources 

 whence it would be otherwise unattainable. 



