; 
58 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
or brush-tongued, honey-sucking Parrots, even by snch recent authorities as 
Dr. Finsch (1867) and Prof. Sundevall (1872); but the late Prof. Garrod 
has shown (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 787 f, and 1874, p. 586 f) that they are 
much more nearly allied to the true Psittaci, notwithstauding the delicate 
fringe of hairs that forms a kind of flat brush at the tip of the tongue, and it 
is now generally agreed that a separate subfamily Nestorin@ must be formed 
for their reception. Twenty years ago the ‘‘ Kea” was very little known, but 
it is now found to be abundant in the higher regious of many parts of the 
South Island, whence it only descends to the more inhabited plains during 
severe winters. Its ordinary food consists of berries and insects; but since 
its alpine haunts have been reached by the tide of civilisation it has acquired a 
taste for raw flesh, to obtain which it even attacks living animals. Dr. Buller, 
in his ‘ Birds of New Zealand’ (1872, p. 94 f.), writes of this bird ;—* Those 
that frequent the sheep stations appear to live almost exclusively on flesh. 
They claim the sheeps’ heads that are thrown out from the slaughter-shed, 
and pick them perfectly clean, leaving nothing but the bones.” And an eye- 
witness thus described the operation to Dr. Hector :—‘ Perching itself on the 
sheep’s head or other offal, the bird proceeds to tear off the skin and flesh, 
devouring it piecemeal, after the manuer of a Hawk; or at other times 
holding the object down with one foot, and with the other grasping the 
portion it was eating, ufter the ordinary fashion of Parrots.” In Dr. Buller’s 
work Mr. Potts has given a long and picturesque account of the bird’s 
natural and acquired habits. Mr. De la Tour informed Mr. Wood that when 
the sheep, are assembled wounds resulting from the Kea’s “ vivisection” are 
often found on them, and not unfrequently the victims present an artificial 
anus—a fistulous opening into the intestine—in the right loin. The 
specimen exhibited was from a sheep that had been so attacked. It consisted 
of the lumbar vertebra and the colon, showing the artificial anus between the 
iliac crest and the last rib on the right side—just in the place, that is, where 
modern surgeons perform the operation known to them as Amussat’s; below 
the wound the intestine was contracted, while it was enlarged and hyper- 
trophied above. ‘I'he sheep was much wasted. The modus operandi was 
described as follows :--'The birds, which are very bold and nearly as large as 
Rooks, single out the strongest sheep in the flock ; one bird, settling on the 
sacrum, tears off the wool with its beak, and eats into the flesh till the bird 
falls from exhaustion and loss of blood. Sometimes the wound penetrates 
to the colon, when, if the animal recovers, this artificial anus is formed; it 
may be on the left, but is more frequently on the right side. It has been 
suggested that the bird aims at the colon in search of its vegetable contents ; 
but the Kea’s carnivorous appetite has been too frequently noticed to neces- 
sitate any such hypothesis. This strange phase of development through 
which the Kea has gone since the European colonization of New Zealand, 
and the consequent introduction of sheep to islands in which indigenous 
ee 
