_Drawn from Nature & on stone by J & E Gould._ _Printed by C.
Hullmandel._
]
NESTOR PRODUCTUS, _Gould_.
Phillip Island Parrot.
_Wilson’s Parrakeet_, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 170.?
_Long-billed Parrakeet_, Ib., p. 171.?
_Plyctolophus productus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part IV. 1836,
p. 19.
_Nestor productus_, Gould, Syn. of the Birds of Australia, Part I.
I have considerable pleasure in being enabled to add a second and so
beautiful a species as the present to the genus _Nestor_ of Wagler. Like
its near ally, the _N. hypopolius_, which, so far as is yet known, is
only found in New Zealand, the _N. productus_ has a very limited
habitat, the entire race, as I am credibly informed, being confined to
Phillip Island, whose whole circumference is not more than five miles in
extent; so strictly in fact is it confined to this isolated spot, that
many persons who have resided in Norfolk Island for years, have assured
me its occurrence there is never known, although the distance from one
island to the other is not more than three or four miles. I regret to
state, that, in consequence of the settlement of Norfolk Island, the
native haunts of this fine bird have been so intruded upon, and such a
war of extermination been carried on against it, that if such be not the
case already, the time is not far distant when the species will be
completely extirpated, and, like the Dodo, its skin and bones become the
only mementos of its existence.
Had I been able to visit Norfolk and Phillip Islands, I should certainly
have made every inquiry into the native habits and economy of this very
singular form among the Parrots, the nature of its food, mode of
procuring it, &c.; and I would now urge the necessity of these
investigations upon those who may be favourably situated for making
them. Like all the other members of the extensive family of
_Psittacidæ_, it bears captivity remarkably well, readily becoming
contented, cheerful, and an amusing companion. During my stay at Sydney,
I had an opportunity of seeing a living example in the possession of
Major Anderson, and was much interested with many of its actions, which
were so different from those of every other member of its family, that I
felt convinced they were equally different and curious in a state of
nature. This bird was not confined to a cage, but permitted to range
over the house, along the floors of which it passed, not with the
awkward waddling gait of a Parrot, but in a succession of leaps,
precisely after the manner of the _Corvidæ_. Mrs. Anderson, to whom I am
indebted for the little I could learn respecting it, informed me that it
is found among the rocks and upon the loftiest trees of the island, that
it is so tame as to be readily taken alive with a noose, and that it
feeds upon the blossoms of the white-wood tree, or white _Hibiscus_,
sucking the honey of the flowers: the mention of this latter
circumstance induced me to examine the tongue of the bird, which
presented a very peculiar structure, not, like that of the true
honey-feeding Parrakeets (the _Trichoglossi_), furnished with a
brush-like termination, but with a narrow horny scoop on the under side,
which, together with the extremity of the tongue, resembled the end of a
finger with the nail beneath instead of above: this peculiarity in the
structure of the organ is doubtless indicative of a corresponding
peculiarity in the nature of the food upon which the bird subsists. I
may mention that Sir J. P. Millbank, Bart., informed me that a living
example of this species in his possession evinced a strong partiality to
the leaves of the common lettuce and other soft vegetables, and that it
was also very fond of the juice of fruits, of cream and butter.
Mrs. Anderson told me that it lays four eggs in the hollow part of a
tree, but beyond this I was unable to ascertain anything respecting its
nidification.
Its voice is a hoarse, quacking, inharmonious noise, sometimes
resembling the barking of a dog.
It would appear from the numerous specimens I have examined that the
sexes scarcely differ from each other in colour; the young, on the
contrary, have but little of the rich yellow and red markings of the
breast, that part being olive-brown like the back.
The general colour of the upper surface brown; head and back of the neck
tinged with grey, the feathers of these parts as well as of the back
margined with a deeper tint; rump, belly, and under tail-coverts deep
red; cheeks, throat, and chest yellow, the former tinged with red;
shoulders on their inner surface yellow tinged with rufous olive;
tail-feathers banded at the base with orange-yellow and brown; the inner
webs of the quill-feathers at the base and beneath, with dusky red and
brown; irides very dark brown; bill brown; nostrils, bare skin round the
eye, and feet dark olive-brown.
Our Plate represents an old and a nearly adult bird, exhibiting traces
of the immature plumage on the chest, of the natural size.
[Illustration: