INTEODXrCTIOIf. 



73 



former days may have fed upon species of Dinomis, perching on 

 their backs in a situation whence they could not easily be dis- 

 lodged. If such was the case, it is easy to understand how 

 the woolly back of the sheep might readily have attracted these 

 Parrots. It would have but recalled to their imaginations asso- 

 ciated sensations leading to acts which revived this instinct 

 which thus had only become dormant in them. 



Pig. 74. 



Xhe Kea Parrot {Nestor 



A variety of other groups of remarkable Birds have no 

 representative in Europe, and many of them are exclusively 

 inhabitants of South America, which contains the most extensive 

 forest-region in the world. 



Amongst these are the Toucans — very brightly coloured Birds 

 with extraordinarily large, elongated, gently curved beSks, which 



