T h e H u i a 115 



upwards to secure it lengthwise in his bill, would swallow 

 it whole. Two birds which were captured for Sir Walter 

 Buller by a native, were kept by him in confinement, and 

 he says that they were most interesting pets, and used to 

 caress each other with their ivory-white bills, and throw 

 themselves into a variety of attitudes. By placing a tree- 

 trunk in their cage he was able to watch their habits 

 closely, and to discover the use of the differently shaped 

 bills in the male and female. After probing the log pro- 

 vided for them, which contained numbers of Hu-hu grubs, 

 the birds would attack any part where the wood seemed 

 soft and rotten ; then commenced the work of the male, 

 who would use his strong bill like a Woodpecker's, and 

 chisel out the soft wood till the grub was exposed to view, 

 when the female would insert her more slender curved bill 

 and drag it out. In its native wilds in New Zealand the 

 Huia is nowhere a common bird, and inhabits but a very 

 limited area of forest countr}', but now that it is protected 

 by Government, there may be some chance of this wonder- 

 ful bird not becoming extinct, as has been feared by many 

 naturalists. There can be little doubt that the Huia is a 

 Forest-Starling, and is allied to the extinct Fregiliipus of 

 Reunion. 



An extraordinary instance of decoration was recently 

 shown me in an unfledged nestling of the Gouldian 

 Weaver-Finch {Poepliila gouldice) from Australia. Dr. A. 

 G. Butler had received the specimen in question from Mr. H. 

 St. Ouintin, in whose aviary it had been bred, and I never 

 saw a more wonderful little object. It was still quite blind 

 and entirely bare of feathers, but besides some bars on the 

 tongue and palate, there were three bright little rounded 

 warts, like beads, at the angle of the mouth. Two were 

 emerald green and one blue, and they all had a pearly or 

 opalescent lustre. One naturally inquires what can possibly 

 be the object of such brilliant decoration in a blind and 



