BTRn SANCTUARIES OF NEW ZEALAND. 421 



New Zealand no ground ciuMuies and ahundanco of food and cover, 

 it ceased to use its Avinijs, which only subjected it to tlie i-isk of being 

 taken by a hawk, and as the wings degenerated from disuse the legs 

 deveh)ped in the same proportion, so that now it is a good runner. 

 Tree parrots in Australia are awkard on the ground, but the seed- 

 eating grass parrots all run quickly. In addition to the islands, 

 which are so convenient a sanctuary, the government has two pre- 

 serves for kakapos on the mainland. They are night feeders, though 

 fruit eaters, an unusual combination, as Mr. Henry points out. Like 

 the owls, they have a disk of prominent feathers about the eyes, and 

 near the nose those long hair-like feathers or feelers common to noc- 

 turnal birds or those which have their home underground. They are 

 so feeble, so unconscious of having enemies, that ong may go up to 

 them without their showing any alarm. If touched they are resent- 

 ful, but if you sit down beside the bird a little while in daylight it 

 tucks its head calndy under its wnng and goes off to sleep again. 

 Unlike the wega, the kakapo hides her nest away carefully from her 

 own mate, wdio is generally both fat and indolent. These birds only 

 l)reed every second year, and the curious point about them is that all 

 the birds lay in the same season — a peculiarity which naturalists are 

 quite unable to undertsand. Their call at night is very much like the 

 booming of a bittern in the sw^amps, and the night drumming is only 

 heard just before the nesting time. In the following year they are 

 silent. The birds are always plentiful where wild berries grow 

 thickly, and New Zealanders speak of such spots as " kakapo gar- 

 dens." The young, when first hatched, are covered with snow-white 

 down. The holes so frequently found in their gardens, where they 

 have scratched, suggest that they dig for truffles, and it is knowm that 

 they eat mushrooms. 



The roa, another of the wingless birds, is distinguished by its 

 wonderful beak — long, slender, and slightly curved. This, too, is a 

 night bird, and rarely found far away from forests. It uses its 

 long, snipe-like bill just for the same purpose that the snipe does its 

 bill, except that it works in harder ground, and its chief food is earth- 

 worms. Its sight is poor, but nature, as is usually the case, compen- 

 sates for this defect by sharpening up its sense of smell and hearing. 

 \\Tien seen in the moonlight, it moves slowly along with its bill out- 

 stretched, and often stands with the point of its bill resting upon the 

 earth, as though either trying to scent the Avorms or feel for their 

 movements underground. The peculiar thing about their breeding 

 habits is that a young bird a week or so old and a fresh egg are fre- 

 quently found in the same nest. Ijike the wekas, the jjarent roas share 

 the cares of a family, though in another way — the male does all the 

 hatching. The young are born with all their feathers like mature 

 birds, and apparently all their intelligence as well, for as soon as they 



