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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: NAN-NEW |
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NESTOR , the name of a small but remarkable group of parrots peculiar to the New Zealand sub-region, of which the type is the Psittacus meridionalis of Gmelin, founded on a species described by J. Latham (Gen. Synopsis i. 264), and subsequently termed by him P. nestor, in allusion to its hoary head, but now usually known as Nestor meridionalis, the " Kaka " of the Maories and English settlers in New Zealand, in some parts of which it was very abundant, though its numbers are fast decreasing. Forster, who accompanied Cook in his second voyage, described it in his MSS. in 1773, naming it P. hypopolius, and found it in both the principal islands. The general colour of the kaka is olive-brown, nearly all the feathers being tipped with a darker shade, so as to give a scaly appearance to the body
bright yellow. The kaka is about the size of a crow ; but a larger species, generally resembling it, though with plumage mostly dull olive-green, the Nestor notabilis of J. Gould, was discovered in 1856 by Walter Mantell, in the higher mountain ranges of the Middle Island. This is the " Kea " of theMaories, and incurred the enmity of colonists by developing an extra-ordinary habit of assaulting sheep, picking holes with its powerful beak in their side, wounding the intestines, and so causing death. The bird is admittedly an eater of carrion in addition to its ordinary food, which, like that of the kaka, consists of fruits, seeds and the grubs of wood
elevation
On the discovery of Norfolk Island (October 10 1774) a parrot, thought by Forster to be specifically identical with the kaghaca. (as he wrote the name) of New Zealandthough his son (Voyage, ii. 446) remarked that it was " infinitely brighter coloured "was found in its hitherto untrodden woods, Among the drawings of Bauer, the artist who accompanied Robert Brown and Flinders, is one of a Nestor marked " Norfolk Isl. 19 Jan. 1805," on which Herr von Pelzeln in 186o founded his N. norfolcensis. Meanwhile Latham, in 1822, had described, as distinct species, two specimens evidently of the genus Nestor, one said, but doubtless erroneously, to inhabit New South
home of this species, which he then recognized as a Nestor, was Phillip Island, a very small adjunct of Norfolk Island, and not more than 5 M. distant from it. Whether the birds of the two islands were specifically distinct or not we shall perhaps never know, since they are all extinct, and no specimen undoubtedly from Norfolksub-family Nestorinae of the Trichoglossidae (see PARROT). Further knowledge of this very interesting form may be facilitated by the following references to the Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, ii. 64, 65, 387, iii. 45-52, 81-90, v. 207, Vi. 114, 128, ix. 340, X. 192, xi. 377; and to Sir W. Buller's Birds of New Zealand. (A. N.)End of Article: NESTOR If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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