NOTES AND QUERIES. 355 



improbable or impossible any duly authenticated observation that does not 

 exactly accord with our own preconceived notions concerning the laws of 

 Nature? — H. S. Davenport (Skeffington, Leicester). 



The Extinct Philip Island Parrot. — Some of your readers will be 

 interested to know that there is a hitherto unrecorded specimen of the 

 Philip Island Parrot (Nestor productus) in a collection of birds belonging to 

 the city of Birmingham, and now kept in the Museum at Aston Hall. 

 As there are only about a dozen specimens of this now extinct bird in 

 existence, any museum may be considered fortunate that possesses one, 

 and I am surprised to find that in an enlightened city like Birmingham such 

 a rarity should have remained for many years unknown, unnamed, and 

 uncared for. These Nestor Parrots, of which the Kaka (N. meridionalis) 

 and the Kea (A r . notabilis) still survive in the unsettled districts of New 

 Zealand, show a considerable resemblance in several points to the birds of 

 prey, and are probably survivals of a primeval race of Parrots that existed 

 before the two families had so widely diverged as at present from some 

 common ancestor; for, just as the Celtic languages lingered long in secluded 

 districts like Cornwall and the Isle of Man, so these early forms of Parrot- 

 life continued, in New Zealand and Philip Island, long after more modern 

 species had superseded them elsewhere. — J.B.Williams (Hollington, 

 Westfield Road, Birmingham). 



[A figure of the Philip Island Parrot [Nestor productus), from a specimen 

 in the British Museum, is given by Prof. Newton (Encycl. Brit. 9th ed. 

 art. * Birds,' p. 735), who remarks: — "The last known to have lived, 

 according to information supplied to the writer by Mr. Gould, was seen by 

 that gentlemau in a cage in London about the year 1851. Not much more 

 than a dozen specimens are believed to exist in collections." — Ed.] 



Note on the Red-backed Shrike. — In a note on the Red-backed 

 Shrike which I communicated to ' The Zoologist ' a short time ago (1896, 

 p. 70), I hinted at the possibility of the curious specimen figured by Meyer 

 (Plate No. 43, upper figure) being a male over its first moult. This, I find, 

 it could not be. On February 18th last I saw in the Zoological Gardens 

 two young Shrikes still in a dress resembling the nest-dress. It may 

 actually have been the nest-dress but I do not at present know whether 

 a slight and partial moult takes place in this bird almost immediately 

 after leaving the nest. Some birds wear the actual nest-dress for a 

 very short time only; e.g. the Spotted Flycatcher, and the Pied Fly- 

 catcher also, to judge by Hancock's plate and description. On March 

 30th Mr. J. Young kindly wrote me word that Red-backed Shrikes 

 moulted into adult dress at the first moult, which usually took place in 

 February. On April 1st he wrote that he had, the day before, inspected 

 the two Shrikes referred to above, and found that both of them had moulted 



