THE



183



Avicultural Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



Third Series .— Vol. VII.—No. 7. —All rights reserved. MAY, 1916.



THE OWL PARROT.


Strmgops habroptilus.


By Graham Renshaw, M.D., F.R.S.E.


When a rare bird is imported, every detail of its habits

should be carefully noted for the benefit of aviculture: but

when it belongs to a species whose very existence is threatened

it becomes an imperative duty to secure a permanent biological

record before it is too late. Already rare even in its native haunts,

the owl parrot of New Zealand has never been common in European

collections : even as a museum specimen it remained unknown till

1847, when the Trustees of the British Museum purchased a skin

for £24. The writer has never seen one in any Continental Zoo.,

nor observed its name in any dealer’s list.


The early attempts to import the owl parrot ended in disaster.

About 1852 H.M.S. “Acheron” was engaged in exploring the coast

of New Zealand. There were plenty of owl parrots in the neigh¬

bourhood, and many fledglings were brought on board; it was, in

fact, a grand opportunity of introducing the species to aviculture.

The cage accommodation was unfortunately too limited for the

captives: in a few days they began to die off, and of those who

survived a few weeks many began to develop deformity in the legs,

as if from faulty feeding. The ship's surgeon, Dr. Lyall, seems to

have been the most successful of the amateur naturalists : he kept

one of the birds in good health until within six hundred miles of

England, when it was killed by accident. About this time Sir

George Grey attempted to send an owl parrot to England, but it

died off Cape Horn.



