15 
dark Fac/us-wooHs was the beautiful bird for which we had expressly come, and of which we had 
secured so many fine specimens. 
One of the birds shot on our last day was a sitting female. The whole of the abdomen was 
denuded of feathers, and the skin had a smooth or polished appearance, as if the bird had been 
incubating for some time. This was on October 12, and was perhaps a case of early nesting, as none 
of the other birds presented any such appearance. In the ovary was a cluster of eggs, the largest of 
which was scarcely equal to a No. 6 shot. The ovarial duct was much enlarged, from which it may 
be inferred that the egg had only lately been laid. Another point deserving of notice is that the bird 
was very fat, even the intestines being overlaid with thin layers ; whereas most of the birds we shot 
■were in rather poor condition. May we not fairly infer from this that the male bird attends upon 
and feeds the female during incubation 1 
In the generality of dried specimens, and in the published drawings that have hitherto appeared, 
the bill is of a yellowish horn-colour ; but this, instead of being natural, is caused by the decomposition 
of the animal matter inside. I have succeeded in retaining the ivory whiteness of the bill, in 
preserved specimens, by treating them after the manner recommended by Waterton for preserving 
the bill of the American Toucan (see ‘Wanderings,’ p. 103) — that is to say, by removing with a 
sharp scalpel the whole of the inner substance, leaving nothing but the outer shell, which then 
retains its original appearance. The process is a tedious one ; but the result amply repays the 
trouble. The wattles of the Huia are of a bright orange colour, and during life are usually carried 
half-curled inwards. 
1 have given elsewhere * a figure of the dried head of a Huia handed to me, many years ago, by a 
native who had been wearing it as an ear-ornament. This specimen, which is now in the University 
Museum at Cambridge, represents a more highly curved form of bill than is usually met with. 
I have also described and figured f a curious deformity in the bill of this bird. The lower 
mandible, in this instance, having been at some time accidentally broken off, the upper mandible had 
considerably overgrown it, becoming somewhat thickened beyond the point of friction $. 
In my former edition I mentioned that a live female Huia had been added to the collection of 
the Zoological Society. The cage containing it was kept in the “ Parrot House,” being placed between 
* Trans. New-Zealand Institute, 1870, vol. iii. pi. iv. fig. 3. 
f Op. cit. 1877, vol. x. p. 211. 
+ More curious still is the case of deformity recently described by the Rev. W. Colenso, F.R.S., in a paper read before the 
Hawke’s Bay Institute on the 9th August, 1886 (not yet published), of which the author has kindly sent me a copy, from which 
I extract the following : — “ The head exhibited is that of a female Huia, the upper mandible of its hill being greatly and 
strangely deformed. Prom about one inch or one-fourth of the normal length of the upper mandible from its base it suddenly 
rises and remains at an angle of 45°, forming a regular, ascending, sub-erect spiral of two large and equal curves of -75 of an inch, 
open, interior diameter, not unlike a gigantic cork-screw, and reminding one of the sjural horn of the Strepsiceros. The total 
length of this deformed mandible, following the curves, is just six inches. It is flat above and devoid of nostrils, and the end or 
tip is sharply pointed The lower mandible is 2 - 75 inches long, being very much shorter and not so much curved as this 
portion of the bird’s bill is in the normal state There is not the slightest indication of the upper mandible ever having 
been broken or bruised Prom its strange configuration it appears to have been far more than merely useless, for it must 
have been always an obstacle in the way and the means of keeping the bird’s mouth constantly open. How it could have 
managed to exist seems truly wonderful ! ” Vide woodcut on page 17. 
In connection with this tendency to abnormal growth, I may mention a suggestive circumstance that has lately come under 
my notice. A male bird which I presented to the Zoological Society was fully adult when I brought it to England. For about 
a year, in its new home, it has been fed on soft food, the bill being thus deprived of the ordinary wear and tear incident to the 
natural habits of the species. As a consequence, the bill has far outgrown in length its normal proportions, and has assumed 
a somewhat curved form, resembling that of an immature female. The wattles have retained their rich orange colour, and the 
bird seems to be in perfect health. 
Mr. T. W. Kirk mentions (Trans. X.-Z. I. vol. xii. p. 249) another curious instanco of deformity in the bill of a female Huia, 
in the Museum Collection at Wellington, and gives a woodcut to illustrate it. In this cose, it appears to have resulted from an 
accident, a shot having probably passed through and split the upper mandible immediately below the nostril. 
