THE MUSEUM 



A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science. 



Vol. IV 



ALBION, N. Y., DECEMBER 15, 1897. 



No. 



Two New Zealand Parrots. 



Read before a meeting of the Bio- 

 logical Section of the Canadian In- 

 stitute, November 8. 1897. 



Before giving a description of the 

 two birds which I have to show you 

 it ma\' be interesting to give a short 

 description of the country, the home 

 of the two Parrots. New Zealand 

 consists of two large islands divided 

 only by a strait (called Cook's) eigh- 

 teen miles in width. The North and 

 South Islands average 160 miles in 

 breadth —the Northern one has an 

 area of about three-quarters that of 

 England and Wales and the Southern 

 one is equal in area to that of Eng- 

 land and Wales together. The moun ■ 

 tains occupy one-tenth of the surface 

 of the Northern Island and are cov- 

 ered with dense forest. One of these 

 mountains runs to a height of 9100 

 feet. The Southern Island mountains 

 occupy about four-fifths of its sur- 

 face, but the greater part of these are 

 open and well grassed. One of these 

 mountains runs to the height of 12349 

 feet. The temperature of New Zea- 

 land resembles very much that of 

 Great Britian. New Zealand is sin- 

 gular in the absence of all indigeneous 

 land animals, excepting two small 

 kinds of bat and the rat which has al- 

 ready disappeared and the native dog 

 is supposed to have been introduced 

 by the natives on their original migra- 

 tion. New Zealand is also remark- 

 able for its wingless birds, living and 

 e.xtinct. One was the Gigantic Moa 

 but this bird has been long extinct. 

 Colonists had to stock the Islands with 

 ail kinds of domestic, also with game 

 and small birds. Out of the sixty-four 

 million acres of area of the two islands 

 twelve million acres are covered by 

 forest and there are one thousand spe- 

 cies of flowering plants on them. 



The specimens I now have the pleas- 

 ure of drawing your attention to was 

 sent to me from Austria through the 

 kindness of Mr. Harry Giddings a per- 

 sonal friend of my own who resided 

 for many years there. He was for- 

 merly a resident of Toronto. 



It is a Kea {Nestor notabilis). The 

 genus Nestor embraces live species. 

 According to Mr. F. H. Knowlton of 

 the Smithsonian Institute, three of 

 these are now extinct. The Kea is 

 the larger of the two left; the length is 

 19 inches, the bill being nearly two 

 inches, which is compressed you will 

 notice and longer than deep. In Cas- 

 sell's work they are called the Nose 

 Cockatoos. Their home is in the is- 

 land of New Zealand only and they 

 seem to live in the interior and more 

 in the mountainous sections rather 

 than in the neighborhood of the sea 

 coast. They make their nests in holes 

 in the trees and sometimes on the 

 ground among the rocks and lay four 

 eggs. Their food some years ago con- 

 sisted of corn, seeds and bulbs of the 

 orchids, the bill being peculiarly long 

 and curiously shaped enables them to 

 dig the latter up. Now the bird has 

 changed its food and lives as reported 

 by Sir W. Bullen exclusively on ilesh. 

 It is supposed that the scarcity of food 

 in the winter season drove them to 

 the lower land where the raising of 

 sheep was so extensively carried on 

 and where they succeeded in getting 

 the offal and heads of the animals 

 thrown from the slaughter houses. The 

 taste for animal food thus acquired, 

 changed their entire mode of living 

 and for some years past they have be- 

 come almost entirely carnivorous. 



In this way they have become a 

 very destructive and annoying bird and 

 have started to kill sheep for them- 



