Beaks and Bills 249 
natives of New Zealand —in which not only is the bill 
of the species designed for a special method of procuring 
food, but the bills of the two sexes are very different in 
form and use, and complement each other’s methods. 
Concerning the peculiar use of the bill in the Huia birds, 
Ree 
Fic. 193.—Bill of Purple Finch and Crossbill compared; the latter specialized 
for extracting seeds from pine-cones. 
Professor Newton writes: “Its favourite food is the grub 
of a timber-boring beetle, and the male bird with his short 
stout bill attacks the more decayed portions of the wood, 
and chisels out his prey, while the female with her long 
slender bill probes the holes in the sounder part, the hard- 
ness of which resists his weapon; or when he, having 
removed the decayed portion, is unable to reach the grub, 
