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more Hawk-like in its flight than the common Nestor. 



however, for rejecting the supposition that it is another aberrant variety of the common species, 

 is that furnished by Dr, Hector's notes on its habits. The observations of so accurate a field- 

 naturalist, which I shall proceed to give in his own words, are decidedly in favour of its recog- 

 nition as a good species : — " The range of this bird is very limited. It frequents the precipitous 

 wooded cliffs in the neighbourhood of George Sound, and thence along the coast to Milford 

 Sound. I never met with it in the forests of the low lands. It is more active in its habits and 



It often sweeps suddenly to the ground ; 



and its cry differs from that of the common Kaka in being more shrill and wild." 



Dr. Hector's interesting account of the locality in which his specimens were obtained will 

 give some idea of the bleak and mountainous region which this species inhabits : — " Three miles 

 from the entrance, Milford Sound becomes contracted to the width of half a mile, and its sides 

 rise perpendicularly from the water's edge, sometimes for 2000 feet, and then slope at a high 

 angle to the peaks that are covered with perpetual snow- The scenery is quite equal to the finest 

 that can be enjoyed by the most difficult and toilsome journeys into the alps of the interior; and 

 the efiect is greatly enhanced, as well as the access made more easy, by the incursion of the sea, 

 as it were, into these alpine solitudes. The sea, in fact, now occupies a chasm that was in past 

 ages ploughed by an immense glacier ; and it is through the natural progress of events by which 

 the mountain-mass has been reduced in altitude, that the ice-stream has been replaced by the waters 

 of the ocean. The evidence of this change may be seen at a glance. The lateral valleys join the 

 main one at various elevations, but are all sharply cut off by the precipitous wall of the Sound, 

 the erosion of which was no doubt continued by a great central glacier long after the subordinate 

 and tributary glaciers had ceased to exist. The precipices exhibit the marks of ice-action with 

 great distinctness, and descend quite abruptly to a depth of from 800 to 1200 feet below the water- 

 level. Towards its head the Sound becomes more expanded, and receives several large valleys, 

 that preserve the same character, but radiate in different directions into the highest ranges." 



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