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nearly resembles Nestor meridionalis, from which it is only distinguishable by the broad yellowish- white band across 
the underparts of the body — and considering the extreme tendency in that species to variability of colour, I should 
be inclined to regard the British-Museum bird as an accidental variety of the common Kaka. Among the numerous 
abnormally coloured examples which I have seen, from time to time, varying from an almost pure albino to a rich 
variegated scarlet, I remember one which, although like the common bird in its general plumage, had a broad 
longitudinal band of yellowish white on the abdomen. The specific identity of this specimen with Nestor meridion- 
alis was unmistakable/' 
It only remains for me to add that the examination which I have since made of the type specimen in the 
British Museum has entirely verified this conclusion. It may be mentioned that this bird furnished Mr. Gould 
with a subject for a beautiful picture in the Supplement to his f Birds of Australia/ 
My son saw one at Owhaoko with a white tail, the rest of the plumage being dingy brown. He endeavoured 
in vain to shoot it. 
Var. <). Nestor montanus, Haast. 
This is a larger race than the common Kaka, and is generally much brighter in colour. It appears to be con- 
fined to the South Island, whence all the examples that have come under my notice have been obtained. No doubt 
some naturalists will be disposed to regard this larger race as a distinct bird ; and for a considerable time my own 
inclinations were in that direction ; but, looking to the extreme tendency to variation in this species, and to the 
difficulty of drawing a clear line between the larger and smaller races, in consequence of the occasional intermediate 
or connecting forms, I feel that I am taking a safe course, concurrently with Dr. Finsch, in refusing, for the 
present at least, to separate these birds *. 
While adhering to the view expressed above, I think it only right to quote the following opinions as to its claims to take 
rank as a distinct species : — 
Sir Julius von I blast in forwarding me a specimen wrote : — 
“ I send you another skin of our Alpine Parrot. Even judging from its hahits alone, it is quite distinct from the common 
Kaka. It is never found in the Fagus forest, whilst the other never goes above it into the sub-alpine vegetation. Hear the 
glacier sources of the Waimakariri, where I was in the latter part of March, I saw them frequently in the alpine meadows — 
4000 to 5000 feet high — feeding on the large red berries of Ooprosma pumila and nivalis , two dwarf plants lying close to the 
ground. We found these berries in the gullets of those we opened. They evidently had their nests with young ones among 
the crags of the nearly perpendicular rocky walls (about 6000 feet above the sea), and I repeatedly observed them flying back- 
wards and forwards, as if feeding their young. After the first day’s shooting they got exceedingly shy, and could not he 
approached within gun-shot.” 
Sir James Hector informs me that it was to this bird (and not to the so-called Nestor occidentcilis as previously quoted) that 
he intended the following note to refer : — 
I never met with it in the forests of the low lands. It is more active in its habits and more hawk-like in its flight than 
the common Nestor. It often sweeps suddenly to the ground ; and its cry differs from that of the common Kaka in being more 
shrill and wild.” 
Mr. Fuller (taxidermist to the Canterbury Museum) also stated, as the result of very careful observation, that “the manner 
of flight is quite different from that of the common Kaka, for they soar after the manner of the Kea ( Nestor notabilis) 
Mr. Beischek, to whom I am indebted for some fine specimens, of all ages, obtained at Dusky Sound, is strongly of opinion 
that this is a distinct species. He says (Trans. N.-Z. Inst. vol. xvii. p. 194) : 
“This bird represents Nestor meridionalis in the sounds, hut it is not very plentiful. I have found them alone or in pairs or 
with their young, from two to four. They breed in hollow trees. The nest consists of a deepening lined with wood-dust and 
feathers out of the parent birds. They lay their eggs from the beginning of March till April. Male and female hatch and rear 
the young birds together ; in August the young are full-grown. This bird is not so gregarious as its ally meridionalis, also 
different in plumage and construction of the skeleton [?] and habits. The cry and whistle is shriller; the male is fiery red 
under the wings, the female golden yellow and a little smaller. These birds are very bold. On the 13th April, 1884, I found 
in a hollow tree a female with one egg and three young birds, which she pluckily defended by biting and scratching. At the 
cry of the female the male came swooping several times past my head. This species is the finest of the three existing species 
of Nestor.” 
Among the specimens received from Mr. Beischek is a nestling covered with grey down ; hut it differs in no respect from 
that of the common Kaka, except perhaps that the downy covering is a shade darker. An egg which he submitted to me differs, 
however, slightly from that of Nestor meridionalis ; it is creamy white, the surface covered with extremely fine punctse, making 
it almost granulate, of a regular ovoid form, and measuring 1-5 inch in length by 1 -25 in breadth. 
X 
