304 NATURAL SCIENCE. Nov., 



coal has apparently had a drifted origin. Among other facts in sup- 

 port of this conclusion Mr. Stirling brings forward the following 

 argument: (i) The absence of true seat-stones containing roots ; (2) 

 the occurrence of finely water-worn quartz pebbles and of lenticular 

 deposits of shelly matter in the coal-seams ; (3) the difference in the 

 physical structure of the coal ; and (4) the remarkable variation in 

 the thickness of some of the seams, and the existence of false-bedded 

 strata above and below the coal. He goes on to discuss the flora of 

 the " oolitic beds "' of S. Gippsland, but his remarks on this head are 

 not as clear as we could wish. 



The Kea of New Zealand. 



In the recent number of the Zoologist Mr. Taylor White, who has 

 been farming sheep in New Zealand for many years, has some 

 interesting notes upon the Kea parrot, Nestor notahilis. Mr. White 

 writes in a somewhat combative spirit, but his report, despite the 

 science correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette, confirms the accepted 

 belief that the Kea has in recent times entirely changed its habits. 

 Mr. Taylor White was in New Zealand before the Kea began to 

 attack sheep. According to him, it did not originally live upon 

 berries and honey, as Mr. Wallace suggested in his volume upon 

 Darwinism. It lived in the mountains above the forest-line, where 

 berries do not grow, and its food was the lichen upon stones. Shep- 

 herds began to find that sheep which had missed a shearing and so 

 had long wool, died suddenly, the only sign of death being a small 

 round hole far down the back. The cause of the hole was found to 

 be the Kea, which, according to Mr. Taylor White, was attracted to 

 the sheep by the resemblance of the wool to lichens, and chose the 

 particular spot because it could hold on securely there, in spite of the 

 attempts of the unfortunate animal to dislodge it. According to 

 the same authority, the parrot had no special predilection for the 

 kidney-fat, but simply picked a hole to obtain blood. 



Whether Mr. Taylor White be right in supposing the resemblance 

 of long wool to lichens to have been the cause of change, or there be 

 more truth in the earlier suggestions that the Kea learnt the ease of a 

 carnivorous habit from the pickings of slaughterhouses and after- 

 wards went straight to the sheep, is a minor matter which may or 

 may not be settled ; but it is interesting to find additional corro- 

 boration from one who has seen the change in progress, of a complete 

 change from vegetable to animal food occurring in a short space of 

 years. 



Novelties at the Zoo. 



Among the novelties recently added to the collection of the 

 Zoological Society is a chimpanzee of greater size, and presumably, 

 therefore, of greater age, than is usual. These animals have to be 



