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 EYES. 



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 OF 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 notdbilis 

 of Gould, was discovered in 1856 by Mr. Walter Man tell, 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 



