8 
specimen there was a narrow white streak down the shaft-line of the middle feather. The most remarkable 
variety, however, is that known to the Maoris as a Huia-ariki. I have never seen hut one of these birds, of 
which I have already published the following notice * : — 
“ I have received from Captain Mair some feathers which, in colour, have much the appearance of the 
soft grey plumage of Apteryx oweni, hut which are in reality from the body of a Huia, being of extremely 
soft texture. I hope to receive the skin for examination, but in the meantime I will give a quotation 
from the letter forwarding the feathers: — Old Hapuku, on his death-bed, sent for Mr. F. E. Hamlin, and 
presented him with a great taonya. This has just been shown to me. It is the skin of a very peculiar 
Huia, an albino I suppose, called by the Hawke’s Bay natives ‘ Te Ariki.’ I send you a few feathers. The 
whole skin is of the same soft dappled colour, but the feathers are longer and softer. The bill is nearly 
straight, strong, and of full length. The wattles are of a pale canary-colour. The centre tail-feather is the 
usual black and white, while the others on each side are of a beautiful grey colour. These birds are well 
known to the Huia-hunting natives of Hawke’s Bay ; and to possess an f Ariki ’ skin one must be a great 
chief. The specimen I have described was obtained in the Ruahine mountains.” 
The skin was afterwards sent to me, for examination, and was exhibited at a Meeting of the Wellington 
Philosophical Society. It is that of a male bird of the first year. The whole of the body-plumage is 
brownish black, obscurely banded or transversely rayed with grey; on the head and neck the plumage 
is darker, shading into the normal glossy black on the forehead, face, and throat. The tail-feathers 
are very prettily marked : with the exception of the middle one, which is of the normal character in its 
apical portion, they are blackish brown, irregularly barred and fasciated with different shades of grey, and 
with a terminal band of white; the under tail-coverts, also, are largely tipped with white, indicating 
adolescence. 
Ohs. In some adult examples of both sexes the white at the end of the tail is tinged more or less with rufous. 
It should be noted also that the brightness of the fleshy wattles depends, in some measure, on the health or 
condition of the bird ; for during sickness they change to lemon-yellow. A recently killed specimen weighed 
14i oz. The palate and soft parts of the throat are bright yellow. The tongue is horny and slightly 
bifid at the tip. In fully matured examples the wattle measures nearly an inch across. 
This is one of those anomalous forms that give to the New-Zealand avifauna so much special interest. 
Considerable difference of opinion has existed among naturalists as to its proper position in our 
artificial system. For many years it was placed, by common consent, among the Upupidse, and that 
it possesses strong affinities to the Hoopoes is, I think, undeniable. Dr. Finsch proposed to group it 
in a separate family with Glaucopis and Creadion, under the name of Glaucopidtc ; and Mr. Sharpe, 
in the British Museum Catalogue, has placed it with both of those forms in the family Corvidae. 
According to my view, however, the investigation of its anatomy by the late Prof. Garrod leaves no 
doubt whatever that its natural place is among the Starlings. 
The late Mr. Gould, who was the first to characterize the form, was deceived by the great 
difference in the shape of the bill, and treated the sexes as distinct species, naming them respectively 
Iseornorplm acutirostris and A. crassirostris — a very natural mistake, “ many genera even, as 
Mr. Gould observes, “having been founded upon more trivial differences of character.’ Mr. G. B,. 
Gray, having determined their identity, proposed to substitute the specific name of gouldi , in compli- 
ment to the original describer; and his example has been followed by others; but I have deemed it 
more in accordance with the accepted rules of zoological nomenclature to adopt the first of the two 
names applied to the species by Mr. Gould ; and the name Neomorpha having been previously used 
in ornithology, it becomes necessary to adopt that of Heteralochci, proposed by Dr. Cabanis for 
this form. 
In November 1870, 1 communicated to the Wellington Philosophical Society a paper f containing 
* Trans. New-Zealand Instifc. 1878, vol. xi. p. 370. 
t Op. cit. 1870, vol. iii. pp. 24-29. 
k 
