Sydney Porter—Notes on New Zealand Birds 19


were soon exterminated when the island became inhabited by human

beings.


There is little doubt that New Zealand and the surrounding islands

are the remains of a vast tropical continent which in the course of time

has become submerged and the remaining portions much more

temperate in climate than formerly. The Nestors gradually adapted

themselves to the changed environment and with the change in climate

the Parrots put on a more sombre colouring, while those on the islands

nearer the equator retained their more brilliant plumage.


Very often in the Kaka we see traces of atavism or throw-backs

to the remote ancestry or revision to ancestral type. These specimens

have in time past caused great confusion to naturalists, and the birds

have been named as different species such as Nestor esslingi, Nestor

superbus, Nestor montanus, and many others, but to my mind they are

merely throw-backs to the more brilliantly-coloured primitive types.


The Kaka seems to have descended from some type of aberrant

Lory, or at least a connecting-link between the Lories and the proper

Parrots. Many of these brilliantly-coloured specimens, in which red

predominates, are very Lory-like indeed. All its demeanour in the

trees is that of a Lory ; it has all the quick whisking movements of

the latter birds, its progression is rather by quick bounding hops than

by climbing, its tongue is brush-tipped, a great portion of its food

being derived from the nectar of the flower-bearing forest trees, and

a glance at the long, slender beak shows that it has no true affinities

with the true Parrots. In reality, the Kaka, in spite of its looks, is

a large and very aberrant Lory, having many superficial characteristics

in common with the strange Presquet’s Parrot of New Guinea. I think

that in time we shall find that this latter bird is also a type of Lory.


In common with the other members of the Parrot tribe in New

Zealand, this bird will at times nest quite near to the ground, and

I was shown on Kapati Island a nest where the eggs had been laid

only a few inches from the level of the ground in a decayed tree stump.

The clutch consists of four rather large, white eggs.


In the years gone by the Kaka was greatly esteemed as a pet by

the natives, in fact nearly every Maori village had one, usually an

accomplished talker and mimic, which also acted as a decoy when



