460 



The Cuckoo-like Birds 



twenty-three species. They are small birds of the Austro-Malayan region, 

 mostly between six and eight inches in length, approaching closely to the last 

 group, but differing in having the bill deeper than long and much swollen on 

 the sides, while the outline of the lower mandible shows a strong curve. 

 Curiously enough the nature of the tongue remains unknown. 



The Owl-Parrot (Subfamily Stringopincs). The Kakapo, Ground, or Owl- 

 Parrot (Stringops habroplilus] of New Zealand is the sole tenant * of its 

 genus and subfamily, and is altogether the most anomalous member of 

 the entire group of Parrots. Dr. Gadow places it first in the second family 

 (PsittacidcE), while others, perhaps more correctly, have assigned it a 

 position on the outskirts of the group and not in its very midst. Be that 

 as it may, the Kakapo is one of the most peculiar and interesting of the many 



feathered anomalies to be found in the little 

 island continent, being two feet or slightly 

 over in length, with the entire outer plu- 

 mage rather soft and lax, and the hairlike 

 feathers about the eyes disposed somewhat 

 in the form of a disk as in many Owls, 

 whence, of course, its name of Owl-Parrot,. 

 The bill is short and thick, much swollen 

 on the sides, without a notch, and has the 

 under side of the hook provided with a file- 

 like surface. The nostrils open in the swol- 

 len cere and the base of the bill is covered 

 with feathers, each with its shaft pro- 

 longed into a " hair," while the bony ring 

 surrounding the orbit is complete. The 

 wings are short and rounded, the tail long, 

 rounded, and with each feather pointed. 

 In color the plumage is green, varied with 

 brown above and yellow-green varied with brown and yellowish white below. 

 A further marked peculiarity of the skeleton is an incomplete sternum and a 

 very much reduced keel, in fact, this is almost absent, for the bird is a very 

 poor flyer, spending most of its time on the ground, and furthermore is practi- 

 cally nocturnal in its habits. 



The Kakapo, according to native tradition, was once a very abundant bird 

 in New Zealand, being found on North and South islands, but it has long 

 since disappeared from the latter island, and is now so greatly reduced in 

 numbers on the other as to be threatened with extermination. Its decadence 

 is but another example of a native species going down before civilized man or 

 the predaceous animals introduced by him. 



According to recent writers on New Zealand birds, the Kakapo has a fondness 

 for open mossy glades in beech forests, as well as more open hillsides, where it 



1 The species known as Stringops greyi rests on a single worn specimen, and is usually 

 regarded as merely a slight color variety of the other. 



FIG. 146. Kakapo, or Owl-Parrot, 



Stringops habroptilus. 



