UJ Ml IK II ■IIIBIW 



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71 



There is a very similar specimen, but with darker plumage, in the Otago Museum. 



I have yet to add another abnormal variety, from Stewart Island, which has recently been 

 added to my son's collection, and which I have had an opportunity of examining whilst these 

 pages were passing through the press. The whole of the plumage is of a uniform pale slaty- 

 grey, darker on the shoulders, and washed on the under surface with dull yellow ; ear-coverts, 

 nuchal collar, and the whole of the upper and lower tail-coverts dull orpiment-orange, of 

 which colour there are also touches on the wing-coverts and thighs ; feathers overlapping the 

 lower mandible, throat and abdomen dull red; lining of wings vivid yellow, varied with obscure 

 bands of red. Bill horn-coloured, darker on the culmen, and tinged throughout with green. 



A specimen in Mr. A. Whaley's collection obtained at Rotorua, and now in the Tring 

 Museum, differs from all examples I have seen in having the hind-neck greenish-orange with 

 black centres to the feathers ; the crown of the head, cheeks, and throat dusky-brown, the 

 ear-coverts being dull orpiment-orange ; breast dusky-brown, mixed with yellow ; shoulders 

 bright-scarlet, mixed with orpiment-orange, the centre of the feathers brown ; rump and 

 upper tail-coverts, brilliant scarlet, with clouded markings of brown ; abdomen, flanks, and under 

 tail-coverts duller scarlet, largely mixed with brown ; upper surface of wings beautifully varied 

 with olive-brown, scarlet, and orpiment-orange ; lining of wings golden yellow towards the 

 bend, pale scarlet below ; quills golden-yellow and scarlet for half their extent, then dusky 

 to the tips ; tail-feathers pale scarlet for two-thirds of their length, then dark brown, with 

 naked shaft-lines produced half an inch beyond the webs. 



A very similar example was exhibited by Mr. Donne at a meeting of the Wellington Philo- 

 sophical Society. This one, too, I understand, is now at Tring, a Museum quite celebrated 

 for its New Zealand rarities. 



Mr. Schroeder, in the Waima Valley, has, I understand, a red Kaka — a veritable case 

 of erythrism— and Mr. Mcintosh, of the National Bank, Blenheim, a white one ; so has 

 Wi Tutere, the Native chief at Otaraia, in the Wairarapa. 



I described, under the provisional name of Nestor superbus, a gorgeously coloured specimen 

 which came into my hands in 1864 ; Mr. Kirk recorded another " almost identical " specimen 

 from Waikanae, in 1884, and a third from the Kaikoura Mountains in 1887. In recording the 

 Waikanae example — which was, many years afterwards, presented by the Maori Chief, Wi Parata, 

 to His Excellency, the Earl of Glasgow, on the occasion of his visiting the Native Settlement — 

 Mr. Kirk observes : " It seems almost a pity that circumstances should have necessitated the 

 reduction of this rightly-named superb bird to the rank of a variety."* 



The late Dr. St. George Mivart, in treating of the hyoid bones of Nestor meridionalis, 

 says (' Proc. Zool. Soc.,' 1896, p. 238) : u Thus the genus Nestor shows a very interesting, 

 but hardly surprising, affinity to the Loridae as regards the structure of the hyoid. It has a 

 parahyal arch, but that arch is remarkable for its slenderness, as the entoglossals are distinguished 

 by their length and slenderness, and differ decidedly in form from those of Eos, Lorius, and 

 Trichoglossus. Thus considered, the Nestors may be thought to represent the Lories in the 

 New Zealand region." 



The following very interesting account of the various modes of taking the Kaka, as told 

 by a Maori, is given in Mr. Elsdon Best's ' Sketches from Tuhoeland ' : — 



m 

 m 



Of all birds taken for food the most highly prized was the Kaka (Nestor meridionalis) . The Kaka was 

 the ' rangatira ' of birds and possessed considerable ' mana.' A flock of these birds is termed a ' Pokai Kaka ' 

 when flying, but when on the feeding grounds is called a ' Whakarua Kaka.' ' Whakarua ' is a name applied to 



* Trans. N. Z. hist., vol. xxii., p. 62. 



