112 Wonders of the Bird World 



lakes of Nyasaland. The birds appear to be strictly- 

 crepuscular in their habits, and resemble other Nightjars 

 in this respect, as they do not fly in the daytime ; but Sir 

 John Kirk mentions, as an extraordinary experience with 

 the Standard-wing, that he has seen the males come off in 

 flocks of about fifteen, and fly over the surface of the 

 Nyasa Lake, when a sudden storm has come on and 

 raised a surf sufficient to prevent his boat from landing. 

 The other remarkable species is the Pennant-winged 

 Nightjar {Macrodipteryx longipennis), which is noticed on 

 p. 277. 



Not very often in the class of Birds do we meet with 

 structural differences between the two sexes, such variation 

 as is exhibited being mostly one of colour, and not of 

 form. In New Zealand, however, we have a wonderful 

 instance of the difference of form in the male and female 

 Huia, or Wattled Starling {Heteralocha acutii-ostris), where 

 the male has a stout conical bill, and the female has a long 

 curved one. In colour the two sexes are exactly alike, 

 being glossy black all over, with a broad white band at 

 the end of the tail, while a large orange wattle is present on 

 each side of the gape, but the difference in the shape of 

 the bill is extraordinary, as will be seen by the figures in 

 the accompanying picture. And there is, moreover, a use 

 for these two divergently shaped bills, for, according to 

 Sir Walter Buller, the food of the Huia consists principally 

 of the Hu-hu grub, which is " the larva of a large nocturnal 

 beetle, and infests all decayed timber, attaining at maturity 

 to the size of a man's little finger. Like all grubs of its 

 kind, it is furnished with a horned head and horny 

 mandibles." 



On offering one of these to the Huia, the bird would 

 seize it in the middle, and at once transfer it to its perch, 

 and then placing one foot firmly upon the grub, he would 

 tear off the hard parts, and then throwing the creature 



