KAKA—KAKAPO 473 



The internal and external structure of both these remarkable 

 forms, Rhinochetus and Eurypijga, has been treated in much detail by- 

 Parker in the Zoological Proceedings (1864, pp. 70-72) and Transac- 

 tions (vi. pp. 501-521, pis. 91, 92; x. pp. 307-310, pi. 54, figs. 

 7-9), as also by Dr. Murie in the latter work (vii. pp. 465-492, pis. 

 56, 57), and the result of their researches shews that though 

 separable as distinct Families, Eurypygiclse and Rhinochetidse, they 

 belong to Prof. Huxley's GERANOMORPmE, of which they must be 

 deemed the relics of very ancient and generalized types. Their 

 inter-relations to the Eallidm (Eail), Fsophiidse (Trumpeter), and 

 other groups need not to be here considered ; but it may be remarked 

 that the eggs of both Eurypyga and Ehinochehis have a very strong 

 Ralline appearance — stronger even than the figures published (Froc. 

 Zool. Sac. 1868, pi. xii.) would indicate. 



KAKA, see Nestor. 



KAKAPO, the Maori name, signifying "Night-Parrot," and 

 frequently adopted by English writers, of a bird, commonly called 

 by British colonists in New Zealand the "Ground-Parrot" or "Owl- 

 Parrot." The existence of this singular form was first made known 

 in 1843 by DiefFenbach {Travels in iV. Zealand, ii. p. 194), from 

 some of its tail-feathers obtained by him in the interior of that 

 country, and he suggested that it was one of the Cuculidse, possibly 

 belonging to the genus Centropus, adding that it was becoming 

 scarce, and that no example had been seen for many years. The 

 late Mr. G. R. Gray, noticing it- in June 1845 (Zool. Voy. ^Erebus' 

 and ' Terror,^ part ix. p. 9), was able to say little more of it ; but 

 very soon after a skin was received at the British Museum, of 

 which, in the following September, he published a figure {Gen. 

 Birds, part xvii.), naming it Strigops ^ habroptilus, and rightly placing 

 it among the Parrots, though he did not describe it technically for 

 another eighteen months {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1847, p. 61), by which 

 time some further information concerning it had been furnished by 

 Sir George Grey {Ann. Nat. Hist, xviii. p. 427) and Strange {Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1847, p. 50) ; while in the same year Jules Verreaux sent 

 an example, with an account of its habits, to the museum of Paris, 

 which was published by Pucheran {Bev. Zool. 1847, p. 385). Various 

 observers, among whom must be especially named Dr. Lyall {Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1852, p. 31), who was the first to record the breeding 

 habits and obtain the egg of the bird, and Von Haast {Verh. zool.-hot. 

 Gesellsch. JVien, 1863, p. 1115) supplied other particulars, and so 

 many specimens have been received in Europe that it is now repre- 

 sented in most museums, and more than half a dozen examples have 



■• This generic term was subsequently altered by Van der Hoeven to 

 Stringopsis, but Stringops is the spelling now generally adopted. 



