NESTS NIDICOL& 629 



from Bauer's drawing. The Phillip-Island Nestor may be distin- 

 guished from both of the New-Zealand species by its somewhat 

 smaller size, orange throat, straw-coloured breast, and the generally 

 lighter shade of its tints. 



The position of the genus Nestor in the Order Psittad must be 

 regarded as uncertain. Garrod removed it altogether from the 

 neighbourhood of the Lories (Proc. Zool. Society, 1874, p. 597), to 

 which indeed the structure of its tongue, as previously shewn by 

 him (op. cit. 1872, p. 789), indicates only a superficial resemblance. 

 Like so many other New-Zealand forms, Nestor seems to be isolated, 

 and may fairly be deemed to represent a separate Family Nestoridx 

 a view adopted by Count T. Salvadori (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xx. 

 Introd. p. viii.), and fully justified by a cursory examination of its 

 osteology, though this has hitherto been only imperfectly described 

 and figured (Eyton, Osteol. Avium, p. 72 ; A. B. Meyer, Abbild. von 

 F~ogel-SMetten, p. 18, pL 23). 



Further knowledge of this very interesting form may be facili- 

 tated by the following references to the Transactions and Proceedings 

 of the New Zealand Institute, ii. pp. 64, 65, 387; iii. pp. 45-52, 81- 

 90; v. p. 207 ; vi. pp. 114, 128; ix. p. 340; x. p. 192; xi. p. 

 377 ; and of course to Sir Walter Buller's Birds of New Zealand, 

 especially the second edition. 



NESTS, see NIDIFICATION. 



NIAS (Fr. Niais, and that from the Low Latin Nidax, a nest- 

 ling), corruptly " Eyas " or " Eyess," a falconer's term for a Hawk 

 that has been brought up from the nest, in contradistinction to 

 a " Haggard " or Hawk that has been caught wild. 



NIDICOL^E, a word used in this work in no systematic sense, 

 but as a convenient term to indicate those Birds, the young of 

 which remain in the nest for a shorter or longer time as opposed to 

 NIDIFUG^E, or those whose chicks are hatched in a condition 

 enabling them to leave their birthplace at once. The Nidicolte, all 

 of which have their eyes closed at coming into the world, may be 

 divided into four categories, according to their initial state and the 

 way in which they subsequently develop : 



(1) Those born with a clothing of "Neossoptiles" (see 

 FEATHERS, p. 243), as Accipitres, Alcidx (partly), Caprimulgi, Colum- 

 bian, Eurypyga, Heliornis (excl. Podica), Sphenisci, Striges, TuUnares. 



(2) Those born naked or nearly so, but soon acquiring a thick 

 clothing of neossoptiles, often of complicated structure, as Ardese 

 ( + Scopus), Cathartse, Ciconise ( + Platalea), Podica, Steganopodes. 



(3) Those born naked, but with a few neossoptiles growing out 

 of the tip of the " Teleoptiles " (see FEATHERS, p. 243) as Passeres, 

 Upupidds. 



(4) Those born naked and never acquiring neossoptiles, nearly 



