38 NEW ZEALAND BIRDS. 



'^ The ranj^c of this bird is very limited. It frequents the pre- 

 cipitous wooded clill's in the neighhourliood of George Sound, and 

 tlience along the coast to Milford Sound. I never met with it in the 

 forests of the low-lands. It is more active in its habits and more 

 liawk-like in its flight than the common Nestor. It often sweeps 

 suddenly to the ground, and its cry differs from that of the common 

 Kaka in being more shrill and Avild." — Hector. 



49. Nestor notabilis. Oonld. 



Mountain Pabkot. Kea. 



Erownisli-grccn, barred with black ; over llie tail, recklisli ; somo l)hic on the wings ; 

 tail, green, with a black bar near the lip; leathers poialcd, fourlh quill the longest, third 

 nearly equal to it. 



L., 2ii ; W., 13 ; B., 1-5 ; T., IS. 



Hah. — South Island. 



"The rigour of a hard winter, when the whole face of the alpine 

 country is changed so as to be scarcely recognizable under a deep 

 canopy of snow, is not without its influence on the habits of this 

 bird. It is then driven from its stronghold in the rocky _gully, and 

 compelled to seek its food at a far less elevation, as its food supply 

 has passed away gradually at the approach of winter, or lies buried 

 beyond its reach. The honey-bearing flowers have faded and fallen 

 long before ; the season that succeeded, with its lavish yield of 

 berries, and drupes that gaily decked the close-growing Coprosmas, the 

 trailing Pimelias, or the sharp-leaved Leucojjoyon, has succumbed to 



the stern rule of winter It is during the continuance 



of this season that we have had trie best opportunities of becoming 

 somewhat familiar Avith it. Within the last few years it has dis- 

 covered the out-stations of some of the back-country settlers. The 

 meat-gallows is generally visited by night ; beef and mutton equally 

 suffer from the voracity of the Kea, nor are the drying sheepskins 



despised They also attack the live sheep. The birds 



come in flocks, single out a sheep at random, and each, alighting on 

 its back in turn, tears out the wool and makes the sheep bleed, till 

 the animal runs away from the rest of the sheep. The birds then 

 pursue it, continue attacking it, and force it to run about till it 

 becomes stupid and exhausted. If, in that state, it throws itself 

 down, and lies as much as possible on its back to keep the birds from 

 picking tlie part attacked, tliey then pick a fresh hole in its side, and 

 the sheep when so set vipon in some instances die." — Potts. 



'' Dr. Hector found these birds rather plentiful in the snow- 

 mountains of the Otago Province, and so tame that it was easy to 

 knock them over with a stone or other missile. On the level ground 



