Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/36

32 a gun. When the killing fever was at its height, one of the men on delivering his tale of beaks said: ‘I shot to-day the queerest Kea I ever saw—all yellow.’ He added that there was another similar bird which he could not catch. Finding that the man, after cutting off the beak, had thrown the body aside, the manager sent out to search for the bird, but was unsuccessful, some vagrant dog or hawk having carried it away. In a



short time, however, the other was shot and carefully preserved by the manager, who sent is to Mr C. Turnbull, of Dunedin. The bird has since come into my son’s possession, and the whole of the body plumage is vivid canary yellow, deepening on the neck and sides of the body and rump into a rich orange yellow; most of the scapulars and the quills are of the normal colour, except the first primary in each wing, which is yellowish white; tail feathers, canary yellow, excepting two of the outer lateral ones, which are partly normal; lining of wing, delicate orange, Here and there, especially on the