78 



Gould's account of Nestor esslingii, De Souance, was as follows : — 

 A single specimen only of this magnificent Parrot has come under my notice ; and 

 this example is perhaps the only one that has yet been sent to Europe. It formerly 

 formed part of the collection of the Prince d'Essling, of Paris, but now graces the National 

 Museum of Great Britain. It is in a most perfect state of preservation, and is, without 

 exception, one of the finest species not only of its genus, but of the great family of Parrots. 

 The native country of this bird is supposed to be New Zealand; but I, as well as M. de 

 Souance, have failed to learn anything definite on this point. In size it even exceeds the 

 great Kaka (Nestor meridional is), which it resembles in the form of the beak, while in its 

 general colouring it closely assimilates to the Nestor pr o ductus ; in some features of its 

 plumage, however, it differs from both. In both those species the tail-feathers are strongly 

 toothed on the under surface with red; and in the N. esslingii no such marks occur, the 

 toothing on the inner webs of the primaries is not so clear and well defined, and the light- 

 coloured interspaces are much freckled with brown." 



Dr. Finsch, on the other hand, states in his ' Monograph of Parrots ' that Nestor 

 esslingii is in size and general colour the same as Nestor meridionaMs, but " has the breast 

 ash-grey with brown terminal margins, and a broad yellowish-white transverse band straight 

 across the belly." He quotes De Souance to the effect that the red marks on the inner 

 vane of the quills and tail-feathers are precisely as in Nestor meridionalis* 



As far back as 1870 I expressed my belief that it was only an accidental variety, albeit 

 a very beautiful one, of Nestor meridionaMs. 



When I had the pleasure, many years afterwards, of exhibiting the bird to the Wellington 

 Philosophical Society, I said : " The specimen which I have the pleasure of exhibiting to-night 

 is, so far as I can remember, almost exactly similar to the type of Nestor esslingii, There is a 

 very slight indication of the toothed markings on the under-surface of the tail-feathers ; but, as 

 I have already shown, the authorities differ as to their presence or entire absence in the 

 original specimen. The curious part of the story, however, is that the bird now exhibited 

 is one of three, all marked alike, recently obtained in the same locality (District of Marl- 

 borough)— all three of which L have had an opportunity of examining. One would have felt 

 much inclined to rehabilitate Nestor esslingii as a species but for the fatal circumstance 

 that one of them has the lower mandible on one side yellowish-white, betraying the latent 

 tendency in the bird to albinism. I still feel satisfied, therefore, that this handsome bird is 

 only a variety of Nestor meridionalis, the most variable of all our indigenous Parrots." 



In exhibiting the fourth example received from Collingwood, to the Wellington Philo- 

 sophical Society, I made the following remarks upon it : "It is a very handsome bird. The 

 bill is finer or more produced than in ordinary specimens of Nestor and the shafts of the tail- 

 feathers project half -an-inch beyond the webs. The colours are very brilliant; the over-lapping 



* Count Salvadori thus describes the type in the Museum collection : 



'Very much like N. meridionalis, from which it differs principally in having a broad yellowish-white 

 band between the grey upper breast and the dull red abdomen; besides, the ear-coverts behind are of 

 a bright golden yellow, the cheeks below bright red, and the tail-feathers towards the base of the inner 

 web do not show the spots, which more or less are always present in N. meridionalis. Total length 

 18 inches, wing 11*8, tail &5, bill 21, tarsus 1*2. Hab. unknown. 



This bird is intermediate between N. meridionalis and N. produetus ; it resembles the first in the 

 dimensions and in the upper parts, and the second in the underparts, especially on account of the broad 

 yellowish-white band across the breast. Although considered by Sir W. Buller as an individual variety 

 of N. meridionalis, I feel inclined to agree with Gould and Finsch in regarding it as a distinct species.' 

 ('Cat. Birds, Brit. Mus.,' xx., p. 9.) 



