TRICHOGLOSSIDAE 



375 



rougher eggs in crevices of rocks. As is well known, the Kea has 

 of recent years become carnivorous, chasing sheep and devouring 

 their flesh. Perching near the tail and clinging to the wool, it 

 digs a deep hole with its powerful beak, and apparently aims at 



Fig. 76. — The Kea or Mountaiu Nestor. Nestor notahilis. x J. (From Nature.) 



the kidney-fat, the mandible cutting w"hile the hooked maxilla 

 ensures a firjn grip. The propensity is said to have originated 

 from the bird pecking at sheep-skins hanging outside country 

 stations. As it sometimes necessitates the abandonment of sheep- 

 runs, or even attacks horses, a price has been set upon its head. 



Of fossil Parrots, Psittacus occurs in the Low^er Miocene of 

 France, the large Necropsittacus rodcricanus in Eodriguez, and 

 the still bigger Lophopsittacus Tnauritiamis, known from an old 

 picture to be crested, in the ]\Iare aux Songes in INIauritius. 



