Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/61

Rh were they that when being photographed they did not stir from the position in which they were placed. They kept very healthy, and had an ever-increasing appetite for food. Since their capture, nearly two months before, they had been fed on strips of kidney, which had to be poked down their capacious throats with a small stick.

The following is a description taken two months after hatching:—

HEAD.— Beak: Upper mandible large and black in colour, with the exception of a slight tinge of yellow on the top of the arch. It is neither so long nor so curved as that of the adult bird. Lower mandible of a yellow colour, except the



tip, which is black. The wattle around the nostrils is plentiful and of a light yellow colour. The mouth large, with a drooping sac-like structure on each side of the angle of the beak, which stretches for some distance towards the tips of the mandible. (These sacs were very conspicuous, being composed of a yellow material, closely resembling wattle, and their function seems to be to prevent the food tumbling out of the mouth; for when the beak is open the two sacs are stretched across the gape of the mouth, and form a safe passage for the food to pass down.)

BODY.— Most of the body, except under the wings, is covered with short quills or feathers. Those expanded resemble the adult plumage, being dark green, fringed with dark brown. The large feathers of the wings and tail are just