190 



THE FOOD OF ANIMALS 



the forest, and is seen singly, or at most two or three together. 

 It flies slowly and noiselessly and may be killed by a compara- 

 tively slight wound. It eats various fruits and seeds, but seems 

 more particularly attached to the kernel of the kanary-nut, which 

 grows on a lofty forest-tree (Canarium commune) abundant in the 

 islands where this bird is found; and the manner in which it gets 

 at these seeds shows a correlation of structure and habits which 

 would point out the kanary as its special food. The shell of this 

 nut is so excessively hard that only a heavy hammer will crack it; 

 it is somewhat triangular, and the outside is quite smooth. The 

 manner in which the bird opens these nuts is very curious. Taking 

 one endways in its bill, and keeping it firm by a pressure of the 

 tongue, it cuts a transverse notch by a lateral sawing motion of 



Fig, 432. — The Kea Parrot [Nestor noiabilis) 



the sharp-edged lower mandible. This done, it takes hold of the 

 nut with its foot, and, biting off a piece of leaf, retains it in the 

 deep notch of the upper mandible, and again seizing the nut, which 

 is prevented from slipping by the elastic tissue of the leaf, fixes 

 the edge of the lower mandible in the notch, and by a powerful 

 nip breaks off a piece of the shell. Again taking the nut in its 

 claws, it inserts the very long and sharp point of the bill and picks 

 out the kernel, which is seized hold of, morsel by morsel, by the 



