Park. — Takalic versus Kakapo. 115 



Among our own pa.vty, ^Ir. McKay was an old experienced 

 bushman and explorer in kakapo country ; but this unusual 

 7"iote was new to him. Mr. Buchanan was a naturalist of 

 well-known ability, and an explorer of considerable experience. 

 He was a member of Sir James Hector's expeditions to the 

 West Coast sounds and mountains of Otago in 1862-61. He 

 remembered having heard the same booming note in the 

 Upper Matukituki Valley in 1862 ; but he had never been able 

 to trace its author. As regards myself, the 1879-80 season 

 was my first experience with the kakapo ; but subsequent to 

 that date I have had many opportunities of becoming well 

 acquainted with its habits. 



In November and December of 1887 I conducted an ex- 

 ploration of the Humboldt Mountains and the high snow-clad 

 ranges at the sources of the Cascade, Gorge, and Pyke Eivers. 

 Kakapos were common, and in some cases abundant, in the 

 grassy dales at the sources of the Eock Burn, Hidden Falls, 

 Olivine, and Barrier Streams ; in the valleys of the Cascade, 

 Pyke, and Hollyford Rivers ; and around Lakes McKei'row, 

 Alabaster, and Wilmot. This was the breeding-season too ; 

 but in all my travels in these places — the very habitat of the 

 kakapo — I did not hear even a solitary boom. 



During this expedition I visited Thomson, the hermit of 

 Awarua Bay, better known as " Maori Bill." Thomson was a 

 keen sportsman (or, rather, I should sa\' his fine dog was), and 

 kakapos, kiwis, and wekas were his ordinary fare. He showed 

 me six or eight large sacks full of the feathers of these birds he 

 had killed and eaten in two seasons. At Martin's Bay I met 

 Mr. J. Webb, an old settler there, who spent much time every 

 year in the open, collecting kakapo-skins ; but in the course 

 of many conversations with him he made no reference to the 

 startling note ascribed to that bird by Mr. Melland. 



On our return to Wellington after the Wauaka trip our ex- 

 perieiaces with the strange bird were narrated to Sir James 

 Hector, the Hon. Walter Mantell, and, I believe, also Sir 

 Walter Buller. The booming note puzzled them all, and the 

 Aptornis, Notoruls, and a small species of moa were sug- 

 gested as the probable author. Sir James Hector said he also 

 heard a mysterious booming note when exploring the Ma- 

 tukituki Valley in 1862, and at that time he thought it was the 

 cry of some small species of moa. 



Referring to my own experiences at Dusky Sound, Mr. 

 Melland attempts to discredit the evidence of my iield-hand, 

 who was known only as " Jimmy." Now, Jimmy's exclama- 

 tion that he had heard a takahe shows that he must have had 

 some previous experience of that bird. Mr. Melland tries to 

 get over this difficulty by supposing that Jimmy had often 

 heard the boom of the bittern, which, he savs, is common in 



