TRICHOGLOSSIDAK 



375 



rougher eggs in crevices of rocks. As is well known, the Kea has 

 of recent years become carnivorous, chasing sheep and devouring 

 their flesh. Perching near the tail and clinging to the wool, it 

 digs a deep hole with its powerful beak, and apparently aims' at 



Fig. 76. — The Kea or Mountain Nestor. Nestor notoHlis. xj. {Siom Nature.) 



the kidney-fat, the mandible cutting while the hooked maxilla 

 ensures a firm grip. The propensity is said to have originated 

 from the bird pecking at sheep-skins hanging outside country 

 stations. As it sometimes necessitates the abandonment of sheep- 

 rujis, or even attacks horses, a price has been set upon its head. 



Of fossil Parrots, Psittacus occurs in the Lower Miocene of 

 Prance, the large Necropsittacus rodericanus in Eodriguez, and 

 the still bigger Lophopsittacus mauritianus, known from an old 

 picture to be crested, in the Mare aux Songes in Mauritius. 



