Taxonomy and Etymology
The genus name, Heteralocha, derives from Ancient Greek ἕτερος "different" and ἄλοχος "wife". It refers to the striking difference in bill shape between male and female. The specific name, acutirostris, derives from Latin acutus, meaning "sharp pointed", and rostrum, meaning "beak", and refers to the beak of the female.
John Gould described the Huia in 1836 as two species: Neomorpha acutirostris based on a female specimen, and N. crassirostris based on a male specimen—the epithet crassirostris derives from the Latin crassus, meaning "thick" or "heavy", and refers to the male's short bill. In 1840, George Robert Gray proposed the name N. gouldii, arguing that neither of Gould's names was applicable to the species. In 1850, Jean Cabanis replaced the name Neomorpha, which had been previously used for a cuckoo genus, with Heteralocha. In 1888 Sir Walter Buller wrote: "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 Heteralocha, proposed by Dr. Cabanis for this form."
The Huia appears to be a remnant of an early expansion of passerines in New Zealand, and is the largest of the three members of the family Callaeidae, the New Zealand wattlebirds; the others are the Saddleback and the Kōkako. The only close relative to the family is the Stitchbird; their taxonomic relationships to other birds remain to be determined. A molecular study of the nuclear RAG-1 and c-mos genes of the three species within the family proved inconclusive, the data providing most support for either a basally diverging Kokako or Huia.
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