45 



NESTOR PRODUCTUS (GOULD.) 



(Plate 6, head.) 



Wilson's Parrakeet Latham, Gen. Hist. B. II, p. 170 (1822). 

 Plyctolophus productus Gould, P.Z.S. 1836, p. ig. 



Nestor productus Gould, Syn. Austr. B. and adj. Isl. pt. I, pi. , fig. 1 (183 — ?). 

 Centrurus productus Bp., Naumannia 1856, Consp. Psitt. No. 265. 



ATHAM'S original description is as follows : " Length thirteen inches. 



I ^ Bill very long and hooked, and upper mandible measuring almost two 

 inches, the under three-quarters, colour dusky ; plumage in general 

 greenish ash, inclining to brown, and clouded here and there with orange as 

 in the ' Crossbill,' but the edges of the feathers of the back dun colour ; all 

 the under parts of the body mixed yellow and dull orange ; rump dull red ; 

 under wing coverts dull yellow ; thighs brown ; the quills reach almost to the 

 end of the tail, which is somewhat, but not greatly, cuneiform ; both quills and 

 tail are brown, the former marked on the inner webs with five or six 

 whitish bars ; legs dusky, toes very long. Inhabits New South Wales. I 

 met with a fine specimen of it in the collection of Thomas Wilson, Esqre." 



It has long been a question whether Nestor productus of Gould and 

 Nestor norfolcensis of Pelzeln were really distinct or only individual varieties 

 of one species. I had for a long time considered them to be merely 

 individual varieties, for I could not persuade myself that a small island like 

 Philip Island, almost contiguous to Norfolk Island, could have a different 

 species of Nestor to that found on the larger island. Since commencing to 

 write this book, however, I have come to somewhat different conclusions. 

 In the first place no special locality is given for N. productus by the earlier 

 authors, in the same way as in the case of Notornis alba, which, like the 

 Nestor, was said to come from N. S. Wales. This fact is easily explained, 

 as N. S. Wales and Norfolk Island were both penal settlements in the early 

 days, and there was intercourse by regular vessels plying between these 

 colonies and Lord Howe's Island. Now we find in the case of several other birds 

 that distinct local forms occur on Norfolk and Lord Howe's Islands, while as 

 far as I know there is no other record of a distinct bird from Philip Island. 

 I therefore believe that Nestor productus inhabited both Norfolk and Philip 

 Islands, and that all specimens extant are from Philip Island, where it lingered 

 some years longer than on the main island, while the specimens of Ferdinand 

 Bauer and Governor Hunter, and possibly the supposed N. norfolcensis of 



