30



Correspondence



look magnificent in the bush with their black plumage and long black

tail with a pure white band across the tip. The tail feathers were con¬

sidered an honour by the Maoris, but only chiefs and men of high

caste were allowed to wear them. I must not forget its beautiful

orange wattles, which showed up well against the black plumage and

the light slaty coloured beak. I cannot tell you anything more about

it, but I can still give its whistle and call, and I hope this rare and lovable

bird will be found again and taken care of.


W. A. Rimmer,


Manawahe.


[The male Huia has the shorter, arched bill, that of the female

being slender, more strongly curved, and longer. The male, according

to Buller, uses his bill like a chisel, after the manner of Woodpeckers,

in order to obtain the grub in rotten timber, the female probing the

cells situated in the sound wood too hard for her mate to chisel off.

Occasionally she would extract the grub from a hole her

mate was enlarging if he with his shorter bill was unable to reach it,

but in each case she ate the victim herself. So it would seem that

Mr. Rimmer is mistaken in this matter. It would, however, be

interesting to know if he ever saw one feed the other.— Ed.]



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.


RARE BIRDS BRED AT PRIMLEY


At the Primley Zoological Gardens were reared during 1933 three young

Black-throated Saltators ( Saltator atricollis), one Kuhl’s Ground Thrush

(Geolcichla interpres ), and a brood of Indian Comb Ducks ( Sarkidiornis

melanotos), the last being hatched and reared by a domestic hen. None of

these species appear to have been previously bred in Great Britain, though

there is a record of the last-mentioned in France.


Turquoisines (Neophema pulchella) have bred very successfully under

Mr. Whitley’s care, no less than seventeen being reared from four nests.


D. S-S.



PROLIFIC PEACH-FACED LOVEBIRDS


At Primley, two years ago, a pair of Agapornis roseicollis reared twenty-

four young in fourteen months, surely a record.



D. S-S.



