Zoological Society. 303 



New Zealand, the only place where we met with it, during our cir- 

 cumnavigation and exploration of the coasts of the islands in H.M.S. 

 Acheron, was at the S.W. end of the Middle Island. There, in 

 the deep sounds which intersect that part of the island, it is still 

 found in considerable numbers, inhabiting the dry spurs of hills or 

 flats near the banks of rivers, where the trees are high, and the 

 forest comparatively free from fern or underwood. 



The first place where it was obtained was on a hill nearly 4000 

 feet above the level of the sea. It was also found living in commu- 

 nities on flats near the mouths of rivers close to the sea. In these 

 places its tracks were to be seen resembling footpaths made by man, 

 and leading us at first to imagine that there must be natives in the 

 neighbourhood. The tracks are about a foot wide, regularly pressed 

 down to the edges, which are two or three inches deep amongst the 

 moss, and cross each other usually at right angles. 



The Kakapo lives in holes under the roots of trees, and is also oc- 

 casionally found under shelving rocks. The roots of many New 

 Zealand trees growing partly above ground, holes are common under 

 them ; but where the Kakapo is found many of the holes appeared 

 to have been enlarged, although no earth was ever found thrown out 

 near them. There were frequently two openings to these holes, and 

 occasionally, though rarely, the trees over them were hollow for some 

 distance up. 



The only occasion on which the Kakapo was seen to fly was when 

 it got up one of these hollow trees and was driven to an exit higher 

 up. The flight was very short, the wings being scarcely moved ; and 

 the bird alighted on a tree at a lower level than the place from whence 

 it had come, but soon got higher up by climbing, using its tail to 

 assist it. 



Except when driven from its holes, the Kakapo is never seen du- 

 ring the day, and it was only by the assistance of dogs that we were 

 enabled to find it. 



Before dogs became common, and when the bird was plentiful in 

 inhabited parts of the islands, the natives were in the habit of catch- 

 ing it at night, using torches to confuse it. It offers a formidable 

 resistance to a dog, and sometimes inflicts severe wounds with its 

 powerful claws and beak. At a very recent period it was common 

 all over the west coast of the Middle Island, but there is now a race 

 of wild dogs said to have overrun all the northern part of this shore, 

 and to have almost extirpated the Kakapos wherever they have 

 reached. Their range is said to be at present confined by a river or 

 some such physical obstruction, and it is to be feared that if they 

 once succeed in gaining the stronghold of the Kakapo (the S.W. end 

 of the island) the bird may soon become extinct. 



During the latter half of February and the first half of March, 

 whilst we were amongst the haunts of these birds, we found young 

 ones in many of the holes, frequently only one, never more than two, 

 in the same hole. In one case where there were two young ones I 

 found also an addled egg. There was usually, but not always, an old 

 bird in the same hole with the young ones. 



