217 



Potts from a fresh specimen : — BUI longer than the head, pointed, curved to the right or off side, 

 curled slightly on itself in a leaf-like manner, a long groove on each side of the upper mandible, the 

 nostrils long, pierced not far from the base of the bill, fitted with a membranous process, -which, appa- 

 rently furnished with a system of nerves, extends some distance along the mandible ; interior of both 

 upper and lower mandibles concave or sulcate, which form is maintained to the point; thus the 

 inside of the bill when the mandibles are closed, becomes a curved pipe, with a very slight twist ; the 

 sharp edges of each mandible are horny and semitransparent ; from the base of the bill the upper 

 mandible flattened on the top for a distance of about 6 lines, it then assumes a raised and slightly 

 rounded form, till it gradually sweeps down into the point. The mandibles are connected by a mem- 

 brane fringed with a tough black border, forming itself, when the beak is closed, into a slightly pro- 

 jecting fold at the gape ; the upper mandible (or roof of the mouth) is armed with a triple row of very 

 fine spines, set like the teeth of a saw, pointing to the base of the mandible. The tongue, when at rest, 

 lies well within the lower mandible ; it is partly sidcate in form, tapers to a fine point, is much shorter 

 than the beak, leaving a vacant space of 6 lines from its extremity to the end of the lower mandible ; 

 the base is furnished on either side with a few spines (three or four) planted in the same direction as 

 those in the roof of the upper mandible ; the thick portion of the tongue is indented with four or five 

 very slight longitudinal furrows, terminating in the channel into which the tongue now resolves itself 

 till it ends at the very acute point ; this sulcate form is attained by the edges being raised. From this 

 peculiar form of tongue, it may be observed that no hindrance is presented by that organ to the 

 sucking up of water ; the spines would prevent the escape of the most slippery or minute prey, which 

 could be crushed by the closing of the beak and the pressure of the tongue against the upper mandible, 

 the water finding ready egress. 



This very remarkable form, distinguished from all other Waders by its peculiar asymmetrical 

 bill, affords another instance of the very distinctive character of the New-Zealand avifauna. The 

 species was first made known to science by MM. Quoy and Gaimard, who obtained it during the 

 French Expedition in the years 1826-29, and gave a figure of it in the ' Voyage of the Astrolabe.;' 

 but no specimens of the true Anarhynchus having, for many years after, been received in Europe, 

 Mr. G. E. Gray, in his List of New-Zealand Birds (July 1862), pronounced the curved bill a mere 

 deformity, adding "the bill is perfectly straight in most specimens," a statement which appears to 

 have been purely hypothetical. Mr. Harting, in an able paper " On Eare or Little-known Limi- 

 colse," was the first to clear up the confusion in which the species had become involved, and to 

 claim for it a proper recognition as the type of a genus quite distinct from Charadrius, in which 

 it had been placed by Gray and other modern authors. Mr. Harting' s paper had the effect of 

 calling special attention to this singular species on the part of local observers; and a very 

 interesting notice of the habits of this little Plover was communicated by Mr. Potts to the Wel- 

 lington Philosophical Society *, from which I take the following extracts : — 



" I have had much pleasure in presenting to the Museum specimens of the adult, and 

 also the young bird in the state in which it may be found probably some ten days from the 

 date on which it emerges from the shell (as figured in the Transactions). These specimens 

 were obtained on the shingly bed of the Eakaia, which is one of the largest of the snow 



* Trans. N. Z. Inst. vol. ii. 1869, p. 68; and vol. iii. 1870, pp. 03-97. 



