Vol 



i^iV^'l White, Birds of Lake Victoria and Murray River. 25 



feet greenish-black ; space below eye leaden colour ; bill black ; 

 length, 280 mm. ; spread, 400 mm. 



Anthus australis. Australian Pipit. — Plentiful wherever there was 

 open country. 



Mirafra javanica secunda {M. secimda). Lesser Bush-Lark. — Not 

 numerous. 



Stagonopleura guttata. Spotted-sided Finch. — Only observed upon 

 one occasion. 



Taeniopygia castanotis. Chestnut-eared Finch. — This widely- 

 distributed Finch was observed upon many occasions. 



Corvus coronoides. Australian Raven (Crow). — Thinly scattered 

 through the country. 



Strepera (sp. ?) — A Strepera was seen upon more than one occasion 

 in the mallee, but not close enough to be identified. 



Corcorax melanorhamphus. White-winged Chough. — These birds 

 were met with in large parties along the river, and were nesting. 

 Their strange mud nests were seen. One specimen taken at Lake 

 Victoria, 8/10/17, (^ — iris crimson ; bill and feet black ; inside mouth 

 white ; length, 480 mm. ; spread of wings, 720 mm. 



The Skeleton of the " Kea Parrot '' of New Zealand 



(Nestor notabilis). 



By Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, C.M.Z.S., Hon. Member R.A.O.U., &c. 



During the summer of 1917 the Department of Tourist and 

 Health Resorts, New Zealand Government, presented to the 

 National Zoological Park at Washington, D.C., nine adult speci- 

 mens of the famous " Kea Parrot " {Nestor notabilis). When the 

 shipment arrived at the Park, 31st August, 1917, one bird was 

 found dead in the crate, and transferred to the United States 

 National Museum, to be prepared as a skeletal accession to the 

 collection. The tag on the specimen made record of the facts 

 that the bird was a male, its Park number being 2441, and that 

 it was dead on arrival at the station (30th August, 1917). 



The National Museum label gives its number as 225,989, and 

 the fact that it was received on the ist of September, 1917. On 

 the 24th of the same month the skeleton, which had been beauti- 

 fully prepared by Mr. Scohick, of the Museum, was loaned to the 

 writer for the purpose of preparing an account of its osteology. 



Turning to the literature of the group of Parrots to which 

 Nestor notabilis belongs, it will be noted that, while some attention 

 has been paid to its morphology, there is really no complete 

 description of its skeleton extant. 



Under the generic name, Nestor, Alfred Newton, in his 

 " Dictionary of Birds," says : — " The position of the genus Nestor 

 in the Order Psittaci must be regarded as uncertain. Garrod 

 removed it altogether from the neighbourhood of the Lories 

 {Proc. Zool. Society, 1874, p. 597), to which, indeed, the structure 



