KEA AND KARA 



and thus sound. It lives a good deal on the ground, as 

 might be supposed from its propensities to convert 

 sheep into mutton. And when on the ground it hops in 

 a corvine fashion instead of adopting the more usual 

 psittacine waddle. Nestor meridionalis is the only 

 other living species, and its Maori vernacular name is 





KEA PARROT. 



Kaka. This Nestor does not appear to have as yet taken 

 to a diet of mutton ; it feeds upon insects, and is more 

 arboreal than its ally. Both species may be seen at the 

 Zoo from time to time. Both also nest in crevices of 

 rocks, and of course, as all parrots do, lay white eggs. 

 The laying of white eggs is correlated with a concealed 

 nest, but the correlation does not amount at all to any- 

 thing like cause and effect. For eggs placed in exposed 



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