NESTOR PRODUCTUS, Gould. 
Phillip Island Parrot. 
Wilson’s Parrakeet, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 170. ? 
Long-hilled Parrakeet, Ib., p. 171. ? 
Plyctolophus productus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part IV. 1836, p. 19. 
Nestor productus, Gould, Syn. of the Birds of Australia, Part I. 
I HAVE considerable pleasure in being enabled to add a second and so beautiful a species as the present to 
the genus Nestor of Wagler. Like its near ally, the N ligpopolius, which, so far as is yet known, is only 
found in New Zealand, the A", productus has a very limited habitat, the entire race, as I am credibly in- 
formed, being confined to Phillip Island, whose whole circumference is not more than five miles in extent ; 
so strictly in fact is it confined to this isolated spot, that many persons who have resided in Norfolk Island 
for years, have assured me its occurrence there is never known, although the distance from one island to 
the other is not more than three or four miles. I regret to state, that, in consequence of the settlement 
of Norfolk Island, the native haunts of this fine bird have been so intruded upon, and such a war of ex- 
termination been carried on against it, that if such he not the case already, the time is not far distant 
when the species will be completely extirpated, and, like the Dodo, its skin and bones become the only 
mementos of its existence. 
Had I been able to visit Norfolk and Phillip Islands, I should certainly have made every inquiry into the 
native habits and economy of this very singular form among the Parrots, the nature of its food, mode of 
procuring it, &c. ; and I would now urge the necessity of these investigations upon those who may be 
favourably situated for making them. Like all the other members of the extensive family of Psittacidce , it 
bears captivity remarkably well, readily becoming contented, cheerful, and an amusing companion. During 
my stay at Sydney, I had an opportunity of seeing a living example in the possession of Major Anderson, 
and was much interested with many of its actions, which were so different from those of every other member 
of its family, that I felt convinced they were equally different and curious in a state of nature. This bird 
was not confined to a cage, but permitted to range over the house, along the floors of which it passed, not 
with the awkward waddling gait of a Parrot, but in a succession of leaps, precisely after the manner of the 
CordidcB. Mrs. Anderson, to whom I am indebted for the little I could learn respecting it, informed me that 
it is found among the rocks and upon the loftiest trees of the island, that it is so tame as to be readily taken 
alive with a noose, and that it feeds upon the blossoms of the white-wood tree, or white Hibiscus, sucking 
the honey of the flowers : the mention of this latter circumstance induced me to examine the tongue of the 
bird, which presented a very peculiar structure, not, like that of the true honey-feeding Parrakeets (the 
Trichoglossi), furnished with a brush-like termination, but with a narrow horny scoop on the under side, 
which, together with the extremity of the tongue, resembled the end of a finger with the nail beneath in- 
stead of above ; this peculiarity in the structure of the organ is doubtless indicative of a corresponding 
peculiarity in the nature of the food upon which the bird subsists. I may mention that Sir J. P. Millbank, 
Bart., informed me that a living example of this species in his possession evinced a strong partiality to the 
leaves of the common lettuce and other soft vegetables, and that it was also very fond of the juice of fruits, 
of cream and butter. 
Mrs. Anderson told me that it lays four eggs in the hollow part of a tree, but beyond this I was unable 
to ascertain anything respecting its nidification. 
Its voice is a hoarse, quacking, inharmonious noise, sometimes resemhling the barking of a dog. 
It would appear from the numerous specimens I have examined that the sexes scarcely differ from each 
other in colour ; the young, on the contrary, have but little of the rich yellow and red markings of the 
breast, that part being olive-brown like the back. 
The general colour of the upper surface brown ; head and back of the neck tinged with grey, the feathers 
of these parts as well as of the back margined with a deeper tint ; rump, belly, and under tail-coverts deep 
red ; cheeks, throat, and chest yellow, the former tinged with red ; shoulders on their inner surface yellow 
tinged with rufous olive ; tail-feathers banded at the base with orange-yellow and brown ; the inner webs 
of the quill-feathers at the base and beneath, with dusky red and brown ; irides very dark brown ; bill 
brown ; nostrils, bare skin round the eye, and feet dark olive-brown. 
Our Plate represents an old and a nearly adult bird, exhibiting traces of the immature plumage on the 
chest, of the natural size. 
