3412 Birds. 



with an impression that it was worn naked at the base in this indivi- 

 dual, a mistake which I afterwards was able to account for by the gray- 

 ish colour of the feathers on the fore part of the face. The length of 

 the whiskers and the arrangement of the scales above the bend of the 

 foot, showed that it was of the species which Mr. Bartlett has sepa- 

 rated under the name of A. Mantelli, as he himself has assured me he 

 had ascertained it to be, even before he saw it, by merely feeling the 

 wing, and so learning the nature of the little feathers upon it. There- 

 fore also it is fortunately of the same species as the various specimens 

 described with such care and success by Professor Owen, under the 

 name of A. australis, but different from the original A. australis of 

 Shaw, which was so cleverly restored by Mr. Yarrell. The length of 

 the beak makes it appear probable that our bird is a female, if, as Pro- 

 fessor Owen is inclined to believe, the sexes can be distinguished by 

 this character. 



To return to the box, which some time ago we supposed to be open- 

 ed. If he has not lately been disturbed, our friend, upon his bed of 

 straw, is usually in a position which it is not at first sight easy to un- 

 derstand, so that any one who has not studied it as often guesses 

 wrong as right, when asked upon which side of the body the head is 

 placed. He is rolled into a somewhat oval shape, and nothing is pre- 

 sented to view but what has, from a little distance, the general appear- 

 ance of hair mixed with bristles. In this assemblage of singular fea- 

 thers, for so, upon a closer inspection, they turn out to be, there are 

 seen at one end of the body certain lines and centres of divergence, 

 which afford a clew to the mode in which it is packed. On a more 

 inquisitive examination the arrangement is found to be such as I shall 

 endeavour to describe. The feet are bent under the body, of which 

 the principal part of the weight reaches the ground at the tarso-tibial 

 joint ; the claws are contracted, probably by the action of the perch- 

 ing muscle described by Professor Owen as not absent in this terres- 

 trial bird. The great size of the thighs gives considerable elevation 

 to the hind part of the body, and in front the little rudimentary wings 

 rest against the knee, if I may so call the femoro-tibial joint. The 

 neck takes a turn downwards and then upwards, sometimes to the left 

 and sometimes to the right side of the body ; the head, facing back- 

 wards and pressed to the side, lies above the wing, and the beak is 

 placed along and supported by the upper side of the left or of the right 

 thigh, as the case may be. In this position the point of the beak, 

 close to which the nostrils are situated, reaches nearly through the 

 feathers at the hinder part of the back, so that the breathing is unim- 



