175 
voyage. I shall be very pleased to present him to the Society — that indeed has been my intention 
always — but I imagined that they would have specimens. 
“ My purpose in writing has been mainly to acquaint you with the habits of the bird in 
captivity, and somewhat of what I have learnt of its habits in the wild state ; and also to ask you 
for hints as to sending the bird home should the Zoological Society care to have him. 
I have just now another specimen of a sheep attacked by these birds ; it is of even greater 
pathological interest than the other one which I sent home, for in this case the opening is into the 
rumen or large stomach ; the sheep survived for a long time. There are also several other living 
sheep that have been injured waiting for favourable opportunities to be sent down. I want one with 
an opening into the rumen, so as to be able to watch the process of digestion. I think it would be 
very interesting.” 
Although, as already shown, very easily captured, it is difficult to detain the bird against its 
will. My brother, during his residence in the back Mackenzie country, obtained, at various times, 
no less than eight live specimens for me; but in every instance they managed to escape, either by 
eating their way out of the wooden cage, or in some other, unaccountable manner, before reaching 
their destination * If taken young, however, they are readily tamed and become very tractable pets. 
D) . Finscb, during his tiavels in jNew Zealand, was accompanied by one which was daily allowed to 
leave its cage, and could be handled with impunity. I never heard whether Dr. Finsch sent it to 
Europe, as he then proposed doing, or whether it remained to share the vicissitudes of his consular 
life in the South Pacific Islands. 
On being removed from its cage and fondled with the hand it crouched down and ruffled up its 
feathers after the manner of an Owl. I noticed that whilst in the cage it had a habit of dancing up 
and down in true AWor-fashion. It seemed very prying and inquisitive, trying the quality of anything 
within its reach by means of its well-curved beak. 
A live one in the possession of Mr. J. Baker, at Waipawa, became perfectly tame and was 
allowed the freedom of the establishment. 
I he inference I ventured in my former edition, that, judging from its general economy, the Kea 
nests in the crevices and crannies of the rocks in its wild alpine haunts, has since been verified, many 
nests of this -Parrot having from time to time been met with, and always in such situations f. 
An egg in my son’s collection, being one of two found in a Kea’s nest “ under a high cliff at 
Forest Cieek, is of similar form and appearance to that of Nestor meridionalis, but is appreciably 
larger, measuiing 1-75 inch in length by 1-3 in breadth; it is pure white, with a slightly glossy 
surface. 
* “ A Kea has been seen by bis gratified captor to eat his way out of a wooden cage almost as quickly as it bad been coaxed 
to enter it. Two which bad been tamed by a neighbouring friend were permitted to wander at large. They regularly returned 
to his house for their meals and then rambled away again, scrambling and clambering amongst the trees and outbuildings. Any 
kind of food appeared to suit their accommodating appetite, but a piece of raw meat was evidently the bonne bouche.” — Out in 
the Open. 
t The following account is given (‘ Zoologist,’ 1883, p. 276) of an egg obtained by Mr. H. Campbell “ The specimen, with 
thiee others, was taken from a nosting-place, in an almost inaccessible fastness of rocks, high up the mountains near Lake 
Wanaka. An egg was broken in getting out ; two of those remaining have also come to grief. Placed among a series of eggs of 
the Kaka ( N . meridionalis) it can be picked out at once ; it is larger, rougher, the surface being granulated, dotted over irre- 
gularh with small pits, a very few slight chalky incrustations towards the smaller end. The shell is very stout and thick, 
exceeding in that respect any examples that I have seen of the eggs of the Kaka. It is broadly ovoid, measuring one inch seven 
lines in length ; in width it is one inch three lines.” 
