AN ADVANCED DUCK 47 



called "Paradise Duck" in that country; in this 

 the plumage is affected, the drake being a dark 

 grey with a greenish-black head, while the duck is 

 nadstly chestnut- red with a snow-white one, and is 

 thus far more striking and conspicuous, though not 

 quite so large as her mate. As in the other case, 

 her daughters confirm the pedigree by resembhng 

 their more sombre- tinted father in their first 

 plumage, attaining their feminine plumage later on. 



Readers will be reminded of the similar case in 

 human hair, which is short in babies of both sexes, 

 but afterwards tends to grow longer in women 

 than in men, though the general habit of cutting 

 the men's hair makes the difference seem, artificial. 



The Huia, which in size and shape is not unlike 

 a Jay, was always a bird of limited range, and never 

 found in the South Island ; it is now very local, 

 and it is to be hoped that the State restrictions on 

 the capture of the peculiar birds of New Zealand 

 will be successful in preserving it — without some- 

 thing of the sort it would soon have been exter- 

 minated " in the cause of science." 



Next to the Huia, the bird which shows most 

 sexual difference in the bill is the Capercailzie, so 

 well known to Scottish sportsmen and a common 

 object in our poulterers' shops in the winter ; and 

 here there is a possible explanation in a different 

 manner of feeding in the two sexes. The cock 

 has a much larger and more hooked bill than the 

 hen, even in proportion to his far greater size ; 

 in fact his bill looks more like that of a bird of 



