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I examined a very brightly coloured specimen in the Otago Museum, the markings being unusually 
distinct. On the upper parts each feather has a narrow subterminal crescent of dull yellow, bordering the 
black and imparting a very pretty effect. The nuchal collar is heavily margined with brownish black, giving 
it the appearance of a collaret of looped lace-work. The feathers covering the rump and the short upper 
tail-coverts are dull crimson shading into green, then bordered by bright crimson and terminally margined, 
in a deeply notched manner, with black ; on the tail-coverts there are generally two bands of bright crimson, 
and the larger coverts are uniform olive-green with black margins. These margins are very conspicuous on 
the back and mantle ; but the blue on the outer webs of the primaries is less vivid than in manv other 
specimens I have seen. Bill dark grey, without any tinge of yellow ; the sides of the lower mandible paler 
grey. (Presented by Mr. Spence, Aug. 1877.) 
Varieties. As with the other members of the genus Nestor, individuals vary much in the brilliancy of their 
tints. In July 1883, Mr. J. H. Berryman sent me the following description of a specimen procured by a 
friend of his in the interior of Otago : — " Bright canary-yellow, with a few red feathers interspersed through- 
out the plumage ; vivid red on the rump and upper tail-coverts, as well as under the wing 3 . Such a 
gorgeous bird has never been seen in the district before/’ 
Remarks. Apart from the difference in plumage, this species differs from Nestor meridionalis in having more 
pointed wings ; it likewise has a longer, slighter, smoother, and less curved bill, without any notch. The 
subjoined woodcuts will best illustrate the divergence of character in this respect. 
Nestor notabilis. 
Nestor meridionalis. 
The first recorded examples of this interesting bird were obtained in 1856 by Mr. Walter Mantell, 
one of the early explorers of New Zealand, to whom we are indebted for many valuable discoveries 
in natural history, and who is now one of the patrons of science in his adopted country. Two 
specimens, from the Murihiku district, in the South Island, were forwarded by that gentleman to 
Mr. Gould, who thereupon characterized the species in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 
and figured it in the Supplement to his ‘ Birds of Australia.’ Nothing more was heard of the Kea 
till the year 1859, when Ur. Haast received a fine example which had been caught on Mr. Tripp’s 
station, near Mount Cook, and forwarded it, preserved in spirit, to Professor Owen. In the winter 
of the following year I first made the acquaintance of the species on a station near the Eangitata 
Gorge, where a live one, which had been snared by a shepherd and partially tamed, was frequenting 
the premises. Of late years, however, owing to the spread of colonization and to the development 
of a new character in the bird itself, to be presently mentioned, we have become better acquainted 
with this remarkable Parrot *. 
It is essentially a mountain species, inhabiting the rugged slopes of the Southern Alps, and 
* Cf. remarks on the skeletons of Nestor notabilis and Stringops habroptilus, with illustrative plates, by L. v. Lorenz, SB. 
Ak. Wiss. Wien, Bd. lxxxiv. Abtk. 1, pp. G24-633, pis. i. iii. 
