v1 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 
oS \ 
Fic. 76.—The Kea or Mountain Nestor. Nestor notabilis, xi. (From Nature.) 
the kidney-fat, the mandible cutting while the hooked maxilla 
ensures a firm 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 Lower Miocene of 
France, the large MNecropsittacus rodericanus in Rodriguez, and 
the still bigger Lophopsittacus mauritianus, known from an old 
picture to be crested, in the Mare aux Songes in Mauritius. 
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