(PLATE 6, head.)
_Wilson's Parrakeet_ Latham, Gen. Hist. B. II, p. 170 (1822).
_Plyctolophus productus_ Gould, P.Z.S. 1836, p. 19.
_Nestor productus_ Gould, Syn. Austr. B. and adj. Isl. pt. I, pl., fig.
1 (183--?).
_Centrurus productus_ Bp., Naumannia 1856, Consp. Psitt. No. 265.
Latham's original description is as follows: "Length thirteen inches. Bill
very long and hooked, and upper mandible measuring almost two inches, the
under three-quarters, colour dusky; plumage in general greenish ash,
inclining to brown, and clouded here and there with orange as in the
'Crossbill,' but the edges of the feathers of the back dun colour; all the
under parts of the body mixed yellow and dull orange; rump dull red; under
wing coverts dull yellow; thighs brown; the quills reach almost to the end
of the tail, which is somewhat, but not greatly, cuneiform; both quills and
tail are brown, the former marked on the inner webs with five or six
whitish bars; legs dusky, toes very long. Inhabits New South Wales. I met
with a fine specimen of it in the collection of Thomas Wilson, Esqre."
It has long been a question whether _Nestor productus_ of Gould and _Nestor
norfolcensis_ of Pelzeln were really distinct or only individual varieties
of one species. I had for a long time considered them to be merely
individual varieties, for I could not persuade myself that a small island
like Philip Island, almost contiguous to Norfolk Island, could have a
different species of _Nestor_ to that found on the larger island. Since
commencing to write this book, however, I have come to somewhat different
conclusions. In the first place no special locality is given for _N.
productus_ by the earlier authors, in the same way as in the case of
_Notornis alba_, which, like the _Nestor_, was said to come from N. S.
Wales. This fact is easily explained, as N. S. Wales and Norfolk Island
were both penal settlements in the early days, and there was intercourse by
regular vessels plying between these colonies and Lord Howe's Island. Now
we find in the case of several other birds that distinct local forms occur
on Norfolk and Lord Howe's Islands, while as far as I know there is no
other record of a distinct bird from Philip Island. I therefore believe
that _Nestor productus_ inhabited both Norfolk and Philip Islands, and that
all specimens extant are from Philip Island, where it lingered some years
longer than on the main island, while the specimens of Ferdinand Bauer and
Governor Hunter, and possibly the supposed _N. norfolcensis_ of {46} Canon
Tristram's collection, now in Liverpool, had been brought from Lord Howe's
Island in cages and were kept as pets in Norfolk Island; and then, as the
value of exact data in those early days of our science was unknown, the
references were made to the place whence the specimens were seen or
brought. One thing however is certain, the bill in Ferdinand Bauer's sketch
is evidently a monstrous growth produced by captivity, for Latham expressly
describes the bill of Governor Hunter's bird as ending in a long thin
point. The differences of _N. norfolcensis_ are the dull crimson sides of
face, chin, and throat; dull green head and hind neck, and the total
absence of bars on the tail. The plate given herewith is a reproduction of
the Liverpool bird, with the bill of Ferdinand Bauer's sketch added, as
this is wanting in that bird, and in the corner a head of the specimen of
_N. productus_, purchased for the Tring Museum, when the late Mr. Wallace's
Museum at Distington, Cumberland, was dispersed.
I have carefully examined the three fine specimens of _Nestor productus_ in
the British Museum, and the conclusion I have come to is that the bird
described by Gould as the adult of his _N. productus_ was an abnormal
specimen, and was in relation to normal _N. productus_ what the aberrations
called "_superbus_" and "_esslingi_" are to _N. meridionalis_. The bills of
the British Museum specimens are very different. The one from the Bell
collection has the long, thin bill, but it is at least half-an-inch to
three-quarters shorter than those in the Tring and Florence specimens.
Habitat: Philip Island and probably Norfolk Island.
One in Tring, three in London, one in Florence, two in Vienna, one in
Prague, two in Leyden, one in Amsterdam, are known to me.
The two specimens in the Vienna Museum were both bought in 1839. One from
Ward, with a short bill, brown chest and throat, and a very wide yellow
breast-band. The other from Baron von Hügel, which has a long bill and very
red cheeks and chin. {47}