158 



■ 



mm 





Newton, who is known to be a great advocate for protection, says in a recent letter to 

 me : l The New Zealand Act is, I daresay, a very laudable and much wanted measure, 

 but unless it is very unlike everything else of the sort known to me, it will probably 

 defeat its object. The things it is intended to protect become so valuable that it is worth 

 almost everybody's while to evade it. As I pointed out, not long ago, that will, I expect, 

 be the effect of the Sudan regulations for the protection of certain beasts and birds. I 

 shall be glad, however, if in either case my fears prove groundless." 



Sir John Lubbock (now Lord Avebury), in his charming volume " The Beauties of 

 Nature," in an account of what he terms the "Hura" (meaning, of course, the Huia), pp. 48, 49, 

 makes two mistakes. In the first place he calls it a Crow, whereas it has been proved to 

 be a Starling ; and, in discussing the curious modification of the bill in the two sexes, and 

 its use, he says : u When the cock has dug down to the burrow, the hen inserts her long- 

 bill and draws out the grub, which they then divide between them'" — the italics are mine — 

 " a very pretty illustration of the wife as helpmate to the husband." 



Now, I believe I was the first to observe and record the peculiar adaptation of the 

 Huia's bill to its habits of life, in a paper which I read before the Wellington Philosophical 

 Society in 1870, describing the conduct of a pair of live birds then in my possession (' Trans. 

 N.Z. Inst.,' vol. hi., pp. 24-29). But I had previously told Sir George Grey all about it, and 

 he, with his usual felicity of expression, told the story at a meeting of the Zoological Society 

 on his return to England. It seems a pity to destroy the pretty sentiment in the case as 

 put by Sir John Lubbock, but science is inexorable, and the truth must be upheld. What 

 I stated in my record of observations was this : " The very different development of the 

 mandibles in the two sexes enabled them to perform separate offices. The male always 

 attacked the more decayed portions of the wood, chiselling out his prey after the manner 

 of some Woodpeckers, while the female probed with her long pliant bill the other cells, where 

 the hardness of the surrounding parts resisted the chisel of her mate. Sometimes I observed 

 the male remove the decayed portion without being able to reach the grub, when the female 

 would at once come to his aid, and accomplish, with her long slender bill, what he had failed 

 to do. I noticed, however, that the female always appropriated to her own use the morsels 

 thus obtained." I am sorry that the stern truth should detract from the poetry of Lord 

 Aveburv's narration.* 



* This correction was first made in my ' Illustrations of Darwinism,' and Lord Avebury, to whom I of course sent 

 a copy, wrote to me as follows: "Many thanks for the ' Illustrations,' which I have read with much interest. Huia is, 

 of course, allied to the Crow, and I said Crow rather than Starling, as giving a better idea of the size and colour. 

 I observe you say that the female ' comes to the aid ' of the cock, so that my account does not differ so very much 

 from what you say. Probably if the cock has not had enough he would take some." 



Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson made a practical application of this incident in his speech at the Festival Dinner of the 

 Medical Graduates' College and Polyclinic, the Eight Hon. Arthur Balfour in the chair: "A not inappropriate 

 illustration comes to my mind as to the relationship between the wealthy aud the scientific in this great work. There is 

 a species of Woodpecker — I will not give you its exact ornithological name, because I have forgotten it — it is a curious 

 bird, and this bird hunts in couples, male and female. They are differently organised as regards their beaks. The male 

 of this bird has an enormously strong beak, and with it he can drive a great hole deep into the stem of a tree where he 

 thinks the grub is hidden. The female has no beak that will suffice for such work, but she has a long slender one. 

 After the male bird has made the hole he calls to his wife, who is enabled by her long beak to get out the grub. She 

 gives him, I hope, his share. My application of this as regards w T ealth and science is — wealth can make for us the 

 hole and can do the rough work which is absolutely necessary to precede the application of scientific methods. We of 

 the Polyclinic persuade ourselves that our hearts as well as our heads are engaged in the work which we have in hand. 

 We look forward to greater triumphs in the future in the advancement of medical science than any that the world has 

 yet seen, and we invite those who possess the means to join us in the attempt to achieve them. We ask our wealthy 



