40 



on the inner web with pale yellowish red, and the secondaries washed, on their inner surface, with pale 

 red ; lining of the wings, as well as the axillaries, brilliantly coloured with scarlet and yellow, varying in 

 shade in almost every specimen, and differing in their markings according to age. In the fully mature 

 bird all these soft feathers, excepting the longer ones underlying the primaries, are of a bright scarlet, 

 variegated more or less with yellow, especially towards the outer edge of the wing, where the ground- 

 colour changes to olivaceous ; in some specimens the yellow tint predominates, while in rare instances 

 the whole of this plumage is of a uniform bright canary-yellow, the axillaries alone being tinged with 

 scarlet, and the toothed markings on the quills almost white, or only tinged with orange. The long 

 axillary plumes are always bright scarlet, barred with obvaceous brown, and sometimes tipped with 

 yellow ; tail-feathers light olivaceous brown on their upper surface, with a broad transverse band of dark 

 brown near the tips, obscure vinous-red on the under surface, with toothed markings of brighter red 

 on their inner webs, and with the subterminal band very distinct. Irides dark brown ; bill dark bluish 

 grey, the lower mandible sometimes yellowish brown towards the base; legs bluish grey; soles of feet 

 yellowish brown. Total length 18-5 inches; extent of wings 32; wing, from flexure, 11; tail 7; bill, 

 along the ridge, 2 - 25, along the edge of lower mandible 1; tarsus 1"25; longer fore toe and claw 2'5; 

 longer hind toe and claw 2"25. Our drawing is taken from a very richly coloured bird now living in 

 the Zoological Society's Gardens, Regent's Park. 



Young. In the younger birds the scarlet lining on the under surface of the wings is marked by numerous 

 transverse bars of dusky brown ; and towards the carpal edges the feathers are olivaceous brown, barred 

 and margined with orpiment-orange ; the long soft feathers underlying the secondaries are dusky grey, 

 with faint bars of scarlet. In some examples the nuchal collar is very indistinct, being simply indicated 

 by a tinge of yellow, whde in others it is fully as conspicuous as in the adult. 



Nestling. The newly hatched nestling is covered with soft white down, thinly distributed, and very short on 

 the underparts ; abdomen entirely bare ; bill whitish grey, the upper mandible armed near the tip with 

 a white horny point ; cere pale flesh-colour ; rictal membrane greatly developed, and of a pale yellow 

 colour ; legs dull cinereous. The bdl and feet seem disproportionately large, giving the nestling a very 

 ungainly appearance. 



Obs. Apart from the strongly marked varieties to be presently noticed, individual specimens exhibit a con- 

 siderable amount of variation in the details of their colouring. The nuchal collar varies not only in 

 extent, but in colour, from pale orpiment-orange to a dark wiue-red margined with yellow ; and there 

 is much difference in the colour of the ear-coverts and of the filamentous feathers overlapping the under 

 mandible. Examples also vary in size, a small one in my possession measuring only 16"5 inches in 

 length ; wing, from flexure, 10 ; tail 6. 



Varieties. The members of the genus Nestor show a great tendency to individual variation, examples even 

 of Nestor productus (which is confined in its range to a single rocky island) presenting such differences 

 of plumage as almost to induce a belief in the existence of more than one species. But this variability 

 of character is developed to the highest degree in Nestor meridionalis . Although it may be necessary, 

 or convenient, to recognize a larger and a smaller race, the former confined to the South Island, and 

 the latter having a wider dispersion, I have come to the conclusion that the following are merely aber- 

 rant varieties of the typical form, and, although sometimes recurrent in different localities, are not 

 entitled to recognition as distinct species. 



Var. a. Nestor superbns, Buller, Essay on New-Zealand Ornithology, p. 11. 



This is decidedly the most beautiful of the many varieties to be noticed. Owing to the discovery at the 



