BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 15 



pressure against the outer surface, when flexible, as during life, would render 

 the nostrils impervious and efi'ectually defend and cover them. A bristle 

 introduced into the nostril, under and behind this defending membrane, 

 passes up the whole length of the beak. The upper mandible terminates in 

 a blunt truncated knob, projecting a little downwards, behind which, on its 

 under surface, the end of the lower mandible ranges when both are closed. 

 The lower mandible is also grooved sKghtly near the outer edges throughout 

 its whole length. Both mandibles are broad and flat at the base. Through- 

 out the whole length of the upper mandible and the distal three fourths of 

 the under one the inner or opposed surfaces of both are perfectly flat, 

 producing, when pressed together, uniform and entire contact, and well 

 adapted for compressing or crushing such substances as may be selected for 

 food. The proximal fourth of the lower mandible is concave on its inner 

 surface, afi'ording space for the tongue, which must, in proportion to the 

 beak, be small and short." 



This matter of the nostrils may have been tedious ; but their very remark- 

 able and unusual situation in the family now under consideration demands 

 attention, I have seen a horsehair passed up them through the whole 

 length of the bill in Apteryx haastii and A. owenii ; and in both the orifice is so 

 concealed that, unless pointed out, it would hardly be discovered by an 

 ordinary observer. The knob at the end of the bill is admirably adapted for 

 the purpose of preventing any foreign substance entering the gape without 

 the will of the owner. 



> The above remarks are, no doubt, correct ; but it is not necessary that 

 a vertebrate should be guided either by smell or sight. The blind man 

 reads by touch alone. In the ' Academy,' Jan. 15, lcS71, under the head of 

 " Natural History and Physiology," appears a digest of a most exhaustive 

 and interesting paper on the structure of the Bat's wing. This paper, by 

 Dr. Jos. Schobl of Prague, appears in Max Schultze's 'Archiv,' Band vii. 

 1'"" Heft. " Long ago Spallanzani discovered that Bats which had had their 

 eyes put out w^ere able, nevertheless, when allowed to fly about the room, to 



