22 
HiEM ATOPUS OSTRALEGUS. 
outer vanes with a slanting* hand of white ; secondaries, 
white, part of them tipt with black ; the whole lower 
parts of the body, sides of the rump, tail-coverts, and 
that portion of the tail which they cover, are pure 
white ; the wings, when shut, cover the whole white 
plumage of the back and rump ; legs and naked part of 
the thighs, pale red ; feet, tliree-toed, the outer joined 
to the middle by a broad and strong membrane, and 
each bordered with a rough warty edge ; the soles of 
the feet are defended from the hard sand and shells by 
a remarkably thick and callous warty skin. 
On opening these birds, the smallest of the three was 
found to be a male; the gullet widened into a kind of 
crop ; the stomach, or gizzard, contained fragments of 
shell fish, pieces of crabs, and of the great king crab, 
with some dark brown marine insects. The flesh was 
remarkably firm and muscular, the skull, thick and 
strong, intended, no doubt, as in the woodpecker tribe, 
for the security of the brain from the violent concussions 
it might receive while the bird was engaged in digging. 
The female and young birds have the back and scapulars 
of a sooty brownish olive. 
This species is found as far south as Cayenne and 
Surinam. Dampier met with it on the coast of New 
Holland ; the British circumnavigators also saw it on 
Van Diemen’s Land, Terra del Fuego, and New 
Zealand. 
