NESTOR PARROTS 1857 



forms and motions are often beautiful and attractive. The immensely-long tails of 

 the macaws, and the more slender tails of the Indian parraquets; the fine crests of 

 the cockatoos; the swift flight of many of the smaller species, and the graceful mo- 

 tions of the little love birds and allied forms, together with their affectionate natures, 

 aptitude for domestications, and powers of mimicry, combine to render them at once 

 the most conspicuous and the most attractive of all the specially tropical forms of 

 bird life." 



As is so generally the case with arboreal fruit-eating birds, the prevalent color 

 among the parrots is green. This is, however, frequently relieved by patches, 

 bands, or spots or other hues; while in certain groups or species it is replaced by 

 blue, yellow, cinnamon, crimson, white, and occasionally black. Judging from the 

 characteristics of the skeleton, it appears to us that the nearest allies of the parrots 

 are the owls. They may, however, have some kinship with the diurnal birds of 

 prey, and possibly with some of the Picarians. According to the arrangement pro- 

 posed by Count Salvadori, who has paid special attention to this group of birds, the 

 parrots may be divided into five families, of which the first is the 



NESTOR PARROTS 

 Family NESTORID^ 



Under the common title of nestors may be included a small group of peculiar 

 parrots confined to New Zealand and certain neighboring islands, all of which belong 

 to a single genus {Nestor} , and one of which is known to the Maories as the Kea 

 and the other as the Kaka. The nestors belong to an assemblage of three families 

 of the order, characterized by the under surface of the hook of the beak being either 

 smooth or merely marked by some fine longitudinal lines. As a family they are 

 distinguished by the more or less elongated beak being much compressed, and longer 

 than deep, with the middle line (culmen) of its upper moiety marked by a longi- 

 tudinal groove, while the profile of the symphysis of the lower mandible slopes up- 

 ward to the tip with scarcely any curvature. The tip of the tongue is provided 

 with a fringe of fine hairs, and the cere of the beak is partially feathered. All the 

 feathers are soft; those situated at the base of the lower mandibles are hairy, and 

 project forward, and the rectrices of the tail have pointed shafts projecting beyond 

 the vane. The metatarsus is longer than usual, and the bony ring round the socket 

 of the eye is incomplete. The nestors are represented by four well-defined species, 

 two of which are now extinct. Of these the kea {Nestor notabilis}, which is re- 

 stricted to the South island of New Zealand, has the general hue of the plumage 

 dull olive green, with black edges to the feathers. There is no yellow band across 

 the breast, and the under parts are olive brown without any tinge of red; orange red 

 is, however, present on the under wing coverts and axillaries. The wing feathers 

 are dusky brown, the primaries having the outer web bluish, and the inner one 

 toothed with lemon yellow. The tail is bluish orange, with a broad transverse band 

 of blackish brown near the end ; the inner webs of the feathers being toothed with 

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