XXXV111 
INTRODUCTION. 
there is less necessity for concealment by means of protective colouring *. This character is constant 
in all the specimens of the male bird that I have examined, although in a variable degree, the 
black band being generally about one third narrower and of a less decided colour on the left side of 
the breast, — from which we may, I think, reasonably infer that the law of natural selection has 
operated to lessen the colouring on the side of the bird more exposed to Hawks and other enemies 
whilst the Anarhynchus is hunting for its daily food. There can be no doubt that a protective 
advantage of this sort, however slight in itself, would have an appreciable effect on the survival of the 
fittest, and that, allowing sufficient time for this modification of character to develop itself, the species 
would at length, under certain conditions of existence, lose the black band altogether on the left- 
hand side. 
Commenting upon the above remarks, in my first edition, the accomplished Editor of ‘ The Ibis ’ 
(Mr. Salvin) indulged in the following reflections : — 
“ It would appear that the peculiarly shaped bill would only be an efficient weapon for obtaining 
food in this way so long as the bird walked one way round the stone, i. e. bearing to the off side or 
from west to east ! The wider portion of the pectoral band would thus be always next the stone, and 
more hidden than the narrower or left portion. Has running round stones always the same way been 
the cause which enabled those birds which practised it to survive and transmit this habit to their 
offspring? and has their success been further promoted by the tendency to reduce the exposed side of 
their pectoral band, a secondary sexual character ? Or has the process been reversed and the protection 
given to those birds which ran one way round stones, keeping the prominent portions of their pectoral 
bands from sight, tended to produce the curvature of the bill? The development of both characters 
seems to hang upon the birds acquiring the habit of running only one way round stones ” f . 
It seems to me that the more correct way of putting it is that the bird must, under any circum- 
stances, keep the stone around which it is feeding to the right ; for, in whatever way the habit may 
have been acquired, it is obvious that inasmuch as the curvature of the bill is always to the right it 
can only serve as an efficient scoop when the bird is in the left position in relation to the stone. 
I do not propose to enter here into a discussion of the theory which a consideration of these 
facts seems necessarily to involve ; but such cases as this can be rationally accounted for only on 
Darwinian principles, and I see myself no difficulty whatever in reconciling this view of the evolution 
of species by means of natural selection with a belief in the unity of design in Creation, and with the 
acceptance of the great tiuths of revelation. It is not a question of the Creation itself, as divinely 
revealed to man, but as to the plan and method of the Creation ; and when, instead of the old literal 
interpretation of Sacred Scripture, we understand by the “ six days ” of the Mosaic record so many 
vastly extended geologic epochs, every difficulty in the way of orthodox belief disappears £. 
* Mr. Secliolim states that in the two specimens which his collection contains this un symmetrical character of the pectoral 
hand is not observable, but he does not give the sex : and it is a curious fact, for which 1 do not pretend to offer any explanation 
that in the female bird, in which the pectoral zone is quite inconspicuous, the peculiarity I have mentioned is hardly noticeable, 
if it is not entirely absent. As to the feature itself in relation to the male bird, I can only say that I have never met with a 
single example in which it was not more or less manifest ; indeed the first to call my attention to it was Sir James Hector, with 
whom, years ago, I examined the fine series of specimens in the Colonial Museum, and with the result I have stated. 
f Ibis, 1873, p. 93. 
t “Allowing that Almighty Power has worked by constant laws, we have to consider the lapse of time during which our 
globe may have revolved in its orbit, in a condition approximating to the present, i. e. capable of sustaining vegetable and 
