142 THE ANIMALS OF NEW ZEALAND 



luxuriating on the viscid nectar of the blossoms. It has been 

 accused of injuring trees by stripping the bark in its untiring 

 search after insects, in order to satisfy its almost 

 insatiable appetite. Mr. Potts, enthusiastic champion of the 

 birds, has come to the defence of the kaka in this matter. He 

 points out, in the first place, that, being a honey-eater, it may 

 cause the fertilisation of the blossoms of trees and assist in their 

 propagation. As to the destruction of trees, his observation has 

 led him to conclude that it is only the apparently vigorous, but 

 really unsound, trees that the kaka damages. Those trees are 

 already doomed by the countless multitudes of insects, and the 

 kaka merely hastens the end. 



About the year 1856, kakas invaded Otago in such large 

 numbers as to become almost a plague. It is stated that not only 

 in the bush, but in the open, on stacks, fences, or the ridges of 

 houses, they could be seen perched in rows as close as they 

 could sit. They were seen sitting on a post-and-rail fence in 

 the Tokomairiro Plains, in Otago, so close together that new 

 arrivals had to fight for perching room, and, if a person shot 

 along the line of fence, he could knock over half-a-dozen at one 

 shot. On the occasion of that migration, they caused a great deal 

 of damage, especially to stacks and thatched houses. Settlers, 

 thinking that the pest would increase year by year, seriously 

 discussed what means should be taken to deal with the birds. 

 The following year, however, hardly any kakas were seen in the 

 district, and the visitation has never been repeated. 



The kaka's tongue is thick, fining down towards the point, not 

 unlike a finger. The superior side is flatfish, the under side 

 rounded and furnished with a row of short stiff papilla^, black 

 in colour. This brush-like apparatus, Mr. Potts adds, can 

 scarcely be said to form the termination of the tongue ; it really 

 occupies a similar position on the tongue to that which the 

 margin of the nail occupies on the human finger. On the inside 

 of the lower mandible there may be observed, just within the 

 deeply channelled lip, a row of minute yellowish dots, very 

 slightly raised above the surface of the mandible. At the sides 

 these specks give way to very faintly marked furrows, probably 



