MOUNTAIN PARROT. 123 



by the Zoological Society in 1872, having been presented by the 

 Acclimatisation Society of Canterbury, New Zealand. Another was 

 presented by Dr. de Lautour in 1881, and a third was "deposited" 

 in the following year. 



In addition to a "mewing" cry, noticed by Mr. Potts, the Kea 

 utters a sharp whistle, a chuckle, and a suppressed scream scarcely 

 distinguishable from that of its congener the Ka-Ka. Nothing is known, 

 with certainty, of its breeding; but judging from its habits, it is 

 probable that the nest is placed in some inaccessible crevice of the 

 rocks in its wild alpine haunts. 



In captivity the Mountain Parrot is very attractive, becoming very 

 docile, gentle, and playful; it also learns to speak and whistle, and 

 engages attention by its sprightly active movements. It is frequently 

 kept by the Maories, who prize a trained bird so highly that Sir 

 Walter Buller has known £10 to be refused for one that was somewhat 

 old and dilapidated as to its plumage, but invaluable to its owner as 

 a decoy. Even in their wild state they are by no means shy; but in 

 the Otago province are so tame that they are easily knocked down, 

 says Sir Walter, by a stone or other missile. 



The same writer gives the following minute description of the plumage, 

 which will be found to differ somewhat from the illustration given with 

 the present article; but, as Buller observes, "The members of the genus 

 Nestor show a great tendency to individual variation", scarcely two of 

 them being found exactly alike : — "The general colour of the plumage 

 is a dull olive green, brighter on the upper parts, with a rich gloss 

 over all; each feather is broadly tipped and narrowly margined with 

 dusky black, with shaft lines of the same colour, except on the head, 

 where there is merely a darker shaft line; the ear coverts and the 

 cheeks are olivaceous brown, with darker margins; the feathers on the 

 sides are strongly tinged with orange red; the primaries are dusky 

 brown, with the outer webs light metallic blue in their basal portion, 

 and largely toothed on the inner web with bright lemon yellow; 

 the secondaries are greenish blue, changing to olive on their outer 

 webs, dusky brown on their inner, and toothed with orange yellow; 

 the lining of the wings and the axillary plumes are vivid scarlet, with 

 narrow dusky tips; the inner coverts towards the flexure are washed 

 with lemon yellow; the rump and upper tail coverts are bright arterial 

 red, mixed with olive, and prettily vandyked at the tips with dusky 

 black, this colour being richest on the middle tail coverts, and changing 

 on the lateral ones to bright olive, shaded with red and tipped with 

 brown. The tail feathers are olive green on their upper surface, with 

 a fine metallic gloss, paler at the tips, and inclining to blue on the 



