INTRODUCTION. xxi 



Rails ; and its close relationship to Tribonyx is undoubted. The peculiarities depend on the reduction in the 

 development of the anterior extremities, which causes the typically ralline sternum to be much reduced in size 

 and the coracoid bones to be separated at their lower ends. The slenderness of the furcula, which is also pecu- 

 liarly large, depends on the same cause. As in the typical Rallidae, the skull is schizognathous and holorhinal ; 

 in other words, the maxillo-palatine bones of either side do not anchylose along the middle line, and the nasal 

 bones are not split up as in the true Waders or the Gulls. The vomer is well developed, and reaches forward, as 

 far as the anterior border of the maxillo-palatines ; it is bifid behind. The wing-bones are feebly developed, and 

 those of the leg are unusully strong. The pollex carries a long claw ; the hallux is small and raised at its base. 



" There are two carotid arteries as in the Rails ; and the cseca of the intestine are just three inches long, 

 the intestine itself being a little over two feet from pylorus to anus. The gizzard is weak ; the oil-gland on the 

 coccyx carries a densely feathered tuft at its apex. 



" So many features have they in common, that it would be difficult for any one to bring convincing argu- 

 ments against the statement that Ocydromus is one of the nearest allies of the Apteryx. This similarity may 

 be the simple result of similar influences acting on different natures, the diminished necessity for the use of 

 the anterior limbs allowing them to dwindle in both. But, with the facts of geographical distribution to back 

 it, the opinion may be fairly maintained that Apteryx and Ocydromus had the same ancestor not far back in 

 time. It may be said that the pelvis is very different ; but the same remark partly applies to Tinamiis, an 

 undoubted ally, and a bird also most probably of the same stock, though residing so far off." 



Fam. CilAEADRHDiE. The most remarkable member of this section in New Zealand, or 

 perhaps in any part of the world, is the Wry-billed Plover (Anarhynchus frontalis). I have 

 made my account of this bird as complete as possible, and in doing so I have drawn largely on 

 the notes contributed by Mr. Potts to the Wellington Philosophical Society. Referring to my 

 remarks on its mode of feeding, and on the peculiarity of the pectoral band in the male bird, 

 which is always unsymmetrical, being wider on the right- than on the left-hand side of the bird 

 (see p. 219), the accomplished Editor of 'The Ibis' indulges in the following reflections: — 



" It would appear that the peculiarly shaped bill would only be an efficient weapon for 

 obtaining food in this way so long as the bird walked one way round the stone, i. e. bearing to 

 the off side or from west to east ! The wider portion of the pectoral band would thus be always 

 next the stone, and more hidden than the narrower or left portion. Has running round stones 

 always the same way been the cause which enabled those birds which practised it to survive and 

 transmit this habit to their offspring 1 and has their success been further promoted by the 

 tendency to reduce the exposed side of their pectoral band, a secondary sexual character ? Or 

 has the process been reversed, and the protection given to those birds which ran one way round 

 stones, keeping the prominent portions of their pectoral bands from sight, tended to produce the 

 curvature of the biin The development of both characters seems to hang upon the birds 

 acquiring the habit of running only one way round stones " *. 



Fam. Anatidjs. I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. W. S. Pillans (who has recently 

 arrived from New Zealand) for the following further particulars respecting the appearance in 

 Otago of Bendrocygna eytoni: — 



"About the middle of June 1871 a flock of fourteen of these Ducks was first seen in the neighbourhood of 



* Ibis, 1873, p. 93. 



