326 AVES— ORDER PSITTACIFORMES. 



do most of the Owls. The Parrots have a cere which is distinctly an 

 Aocipitrine character, and the Owls have semi-zygodactyle foot, not very 

 different in outward appearance from that of the Parrots. Indeed, it was 

 one of the most curious of my experiences to see a Little Owl {GarvM nodm) 

 catch a black beetle and eat it. It held the beetle between its toes, exactly 

 like a Parrot takes its food, and munched it up, holding its foot like a hand 

 to take the insect to its mouth. 



In the Parrots the palate is bridged or " desmognathous," and the upper 

 mandible is movable and loosely articulated to the skull, while the plantar 

 tendons are like those of the Game-Birds. The nestlings of Parrots are 

 decidedly curious, and differ from those of Owls, and also of Picarian birds. 

 They are covered with a dense coating of down of a dusky colour, but appear 

 to be completely naked when first hatched. The feathers are encased in 

 sheaths, like those of Picarian birds, and these sheaths last for a considerable 

 time, being thrown off only when the feather itself is nearly perfect, so that 

 the young bird, from being covered with bristly spines, becomes all at once 

 fully feathered. 



Count Salvadori, who has monographed the Parrots in the twentieth 

 volume of the British Museum "Catalogue of Birds," divides them 

 into six families, the Kaka Parrots (Nestoridce), the Lories (Loriidcs), the 

 Lorikeets (Cyclopsittacidce), the Cockatoos (Gacatuidw), the true Parrots 

 (Fsittacidce), and the Owl-Parrots (Stringopidce) . 



In this family the tongue is fringed, and the culmen of the bill is grooved 

 along the middle. Tlie species are now confined to New Zealand ; but 

 Nestor productiis and N. norfolcensis, from Philip Island 

 The Kaka and Norfolk Island respectively, though now extinct, show 



Parrots. — Family that the genus extended, informer times at least, as far as 

 Nestoridae. thg above-mentioned localities. The Nestors are forest- 



loving birds, and the following are Sir W. Buller's notes on 

 the habits of the Kaka : — ' ' This is one of our highly characteristic forms, and 

 is met with, more or less, in every part of the country. Far away in the 

 depths of the forest, where the trees are clad with rich mosses, cryptograms, 

 and lycopods to their very tops, where, as if to hide the mouldering decay of 

 Nature, huge masses of green vines and creeping plants cover the aged trunks 

 and bind the bush together — where the sunlight, struggling through leafy 

 tops, discloses here and there a feathery tassel of Asplenium flaccidum hang- 

 ing from the branches or a clump of the scArlet-flowered mistletoe — there the 

 Kaka is at home, and may be seen twisting and turning among the sprays, 

 hopping Cockatoo-fashion along a branch, then climbing higher with grace- 

 ful agility ; resting for a moment to whistle for his mate and, when he has 

 joined him, expressing his pleasure in a sharp chuckling note, like the 

 striking together of two quartz pebbles ; then, as if suspecting some 

 treachery below, he suddenly takes wing with loud cries of 'Kaka,' 

 and glides smoothly through the leafy maze, closely followed by his 

 spouse. On a rear view the brilliant plumage under the wings is very 

 conspicuous when the bird is flying ; but when the bird is climbing or 

 hopping, in the manner habitual to it, the wings are kept closed. Then on 

 the outskirts of the forest you meet with him again — more generally in the 

 early morning — hunting diligently for his insect food, or regaling himself 

 on ripe berries of various kinds in the thick underwood ; and towards 

 evening three or more of them may be seen in company, flying high above 

 the forest level ; then alighting on the withered, naked top of some lofty 



