Melland. — On Notornis mantelli. 299 



III case it should be thought strange that such an unusual 

 note should be due to such a comparatively connnon bird as 

 the kakapo, I should mention that, in addition to the fact that 

 this note is only used during the breeding-season — -from No- 

 vember to January, with an occasional " boom " up to as late 

 as March (Mr. Park's experiences appear to have all been 

 in January) — another peculiarity has been observed which 

 shows its strangely intermittent occurrence. I cannot say 

 whether the fact holds good o\\ the West Coast, but on the 

 Te Anau side of the mountains it has been carefully noticed 

 for the last nine years that the booming note occurs only every 

 alternate year. In these years the "drumming" (as it is 

 called) can be heard in all directions almost every night of the 

 breeding-season, while in the intervening summers there is 

 hardly a solitary "boom." From this observation a theory 

 has been evolved that the kakapo only breeds every alternate 

 year. If true, this would no doubt be a remarkable and note- 

 worthy fact ; but there is not yet sufficient evidence either to 

 prove or disprove it. It seems a pity that no systematic 

 steps have been taken to definitely settle a question so easily 

 decided, the more especially as, owing to the incredible folly 

 of the Government in turning out ferrets on the west shore 

 of Lake Manapouri, the day when this and all similar ques- 

 tions with regard to the native birds in that district will be 

 impossible of settlement, is rapidly approaching. At present, 

 however, the ferrets have not passed the South Fiord of Te 

 Anau, and between there and the North Fiord I would under- 

 take to catch at least half-a-dozen drumming kakapos any 

 night next December. This is the sunny side of the moun- 

 tains, and still has, I believe, far more kakapos to the square 

 mile than any other part of the West Coast. 



Before leaving the subject of this mysterious booming note 

 I must quote from Sir Walter Buller's article on the kakapo, 

 in the new edition of his " Birds of New Zealand," a curious 

 remark which seems to show that in the olden days the 

 Maoris had traced this sound to its true source. He says 

 (vol. ii., p. 181), " The Maori proverb, ' Ka puru a piitaihmu,' 

 relates to the former abundance of this bird. The natives say 

 that the kakapo is gregarious, and that wlienin the olden time 

 numbers of them congregated at night their noise could be 

 heard to a considerable distance. Hence the application of 

 the above proverb, which is used to denote the rumbling of 

 distant thunder." As there is not the slightest connection be- 

 tween the ordinary strident scream of the kakapo and the 

 " rumbling of distant thunder," this saying seenis to distinctly 

 point to the " drumming " note, which at a considerable dis- 

 tance is not at all unlike rolling thunder. But the origin of the 

 proverb is by this time probably unknown to the Maoris 



