Page:DawsonOrnithologicalMiscVol1.djvu/76

Rh the bark." Evidently it is much more dendritic than the Kea (Nestor notabilis); nor has it the ferocious quality and sheep-killing habits which the mountain-species at times exhibits. It stands in the place of "the Wood- peckers, which are absent from the avifauna of the country." Here, however, I may observe that it may be called rather a bark-stripper than a wood- hewer, which is particularly the function of the Woodpeckers.

In captivity it is described as very mischievous, injuring the furniture &c., in which, no doubt, its powerful beak would assist ; and as all the houses are built of wood, it might make sad havoc in a short time.

Mr. A. R. Wallace remarks, in his instructive article on the Parrots (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 272) : — "The Psittaci or Parrots are an extensive and very isolated group of birds ranging over the tropics of the whole world, but, with the exception of those lands of anomalies, Australia and New Zealand, rarely found in the temperate and cooler regions."

Dr. Buller says MM. Blanchard and Pelzeln first determined "the true affinities of the genus Nestor, assigning it a station in the subfamily Tricho- glossinse. It bears a close relation to the Australian Lories ; and the New- Guinea form, known as Pecquet's Parrot (Dasyptilus pecqueti), appears to exhibit the transitional or connecting link between these two well-marked groups." By some means an error arose respecting the name of this bird, belonging to the mysterious region of Papua (or, as a correspondent of the 'Times,' Dec. 16, 1874, says it should be, "Daudai"). Mr. Wallace (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 287) calls it D. pequetii, Less. Bull. Univers. 1831, p. 241, remarking that the natives of Salwatty said it was "very rare." Again, it has been written D. pesqueti. In the ' Bulletin des Sciences Naturelles &c..' vol. XXV. p. 341 (misprinted 241), it is given "Psittacus pecqustii, Less.," and the account of the bird begins by saying that Lesson had it from M. Pecquet. Placing my own specimen of D. pecqueti by the side of a series of Nestors, I observe the remarkable difference in the feathers on the head and neck of the former from those of the latter. In D. pecqueti they are very lanceolate, quite sharp at the points, and stiff — in fact, much resembling those of