316 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE OWL PARROT (Strigops* habroptilus^). 



The genus Strigops is the sole representative of the fifth sub-family, the Strigopince. It is one of 

 the most remarkable of all the Parrots, and is met with only in New Zealand. The face shows a disc 

 exactly as in the Owls, whence the name, and the wing is very short, convex, and rounded. In its 

 habits this bird is chiefly nocturnal, but not entirely so ; the most remarkable fact connected with it 

 being, perhaps, its unwillingness to fly. Thus Dr. Buller, F.R.S., in his excellent work on the " Birds of 

 New Zealand," writes : " All who have studied the bird in its natural state agree on this point, that 

 the wings, although sufficiently large and strong, are perfectly useless for purposes of flight, and that 

 the bird merely spreads them to break the force of its fall in descending from a higher point to a lower, 

 when suddenly surprised ; in some instances even this use of them is neglected, the bird falling 

 to the ground like a stone. We are naturally led to ask how it is that a bird possessing . 

 lai'ge and well-formed wings should be found utterly incapable of flight. On removing the skin 

 from the body it is seen that the muscles by means of which the movements of these 

 anterior limbs are regulated are very well developed, but are largely overlaid with fat. The 

 bird is known to be a ground-feeder, with a voracious appetite, and to subsist chiefly on vegetable 

 mosses, which, possessing but little nutriment, require to be eaten in large quantities ; and Dr. Haast 

 informs us that he has sometimes seen them with their crops so distended and heavy, that the birds 

 were scarcely able to move. These mosses cover the ground and the roots or trunks of prostrate trees, 

 requiring to be sought for on foot ; and the bird's habit of feeding at night, in a country where there 

 are no indigenous predatory quadrupeds, would render flight a superfluous exertion, and a faculty of 

 no especial advantage in the struggle for existence. Thus it may be reasonably inferred that disuse, 

 under the usual operations of the laws of nature, has occasioned this disability of wing ; for there is 

 no physiological reason why the Kakapo should not be as good a flier as any other Parrot." 



The Kakapo, as it is called in New Zealand, meaning a " Night Parrot," is becoming rarer every 

 year, as the places which it affects become more and more accessible to the colonists. From the long 

 accounts of its habits given in Dr. Buller's work, the following note of Dr. Haast is selected, as it 



f, an Owl ; to\!/, a face, i.e., Laving the appearance of an Ow.l. 



a/3po?, soft ; 



feather. 



