Alfred Newton

“ Whether the birds of the two islands were specifically distinct or not we shall perhaps never know, since they are all extinct, and no specimen undoubtedly from Norfolk Island seems to have been preserved. The Phillip-Island Nestor may be distinguished from both of the New-Zealand species by its somewhat smaller size, orange throat, straw-coloured breast, and the generally lighter shade of its tints. ”

“ The crown is light grey, the ear-coverts and nape purplish-bronze, and the rump and abdomen of a more or less deep crimson-red; but much variation is presented in the extent and tinge of the last colour, which often becomes orange and sometimes bright yellow. The kaka is about the size of a crow; but a larger species, generally resembling it, though with plumage mostly dull olive-green, the Nestor notabilis of J. Gould, was discovered in 1856 by Walter Mantell, in the higher mountain ranges of the Middle Island. ”

“ The bird is admittedly an eater of carrion in addition to its ordinary food, which, like that of the kaka, consists of fruits, seeds and the grubs of wood-destroying insects, the last being obtained by stripping the bark from trees infested by them. The amount of injury the kea inflicts on flock-masters has doubtless been much exaggerated, for Dr Menzies states that on one “run,” where the loss was unusually large, the proportion of sheep attacked was about one in three hundred, and that those pasturing below the elevation of 2000 ft. are seldom disturbed. ”