NESTOR 627 
and thence to the ganglion supremum of the combined n. vagus and 
glossopharyngeus. From this last, which sends out long sympathetic 
branches to the carotids and the throat generally, the Sympathetic 
chain extends to the head by complicated connexions with the 
ganglia of the 7th, 5th and 3rd pairs of cranial nerves (see BRAIN), 
its numerous branches serving chiefly the blood-vessels of the head, 
the lacrymal glands and the Eyxs. 
NESTOR, the name applied to a small but remarkable group of 
Parrots peculiar to the New-Zealand Region, of which the type is 
the Psittacus meridionalis of Gmelin, founded on a species described 
by Latham (Gen. Synops.i. p. 264), and subsequently termed by him 
P. nestor, in allusion to its hoary head, but now usually known as 
Nestor meridionalis, the “ Kaka” of the Maories and English settlers 
in New Zealand, in some parts of which it was, and even yet may 
be, very abundant, though its numbers are fast decreasing. Forster, 
who accompanied Cook in his second voyage, described it in his 
HEAD or Nestor. (From Buller.) 
MS. in 1773, naming it P. hypopolius, and found it in both the 
- principal islands. The general colour of the Kaka is olive-brown, 
nearly all the feathers being tipped with a darker shade, so as to 
give a scaly appearance to the body. The crown is light grey, the 
ear-coverts and nape purplish-bronze, and the rump and abdomen of 
a more or less deep crimson-red ; but much variation is presented 
in the extent and tinge of the last colour, which often becomes 
orange and sometimes bright yellow. The Kaka is about the size 
of a Crow; but a larger species, generally resembling it, though 
having its plumage varied with blue and green, the Nestor notabilis 
of Gould, was discovered in 1856 by Mr. Walter Mantell, in the 
higher mountain-ranges of the South Island. This is the “ Kea” of 
the Maories, and has of late incurred the enmity of colonists by 
developing, when pressed by hunger in winter, an extraordinary 
habit of assaulting sheep, picking holes with its powerful beak in 
