The Zoologist — December, 1871. 2853 



The Birds of New Zealand. By T. H. Potts, Esq; 



TheKaka (continued from S. S. 2802).— After a home is made 

 ready, it often happens that in place of being occupied it is deserted 

 for some more eligible locality. It lays its four white eggs on the 

 decayed wood, without any further supply of softer material by way 

 of nest. As an instance of devoted attachment to its young, it may 

 be mentioned that we have found the old bird dead at ihe entrance 

 of its nesting-hole after a bush-fire, in which it had perished rather 

 than desert its helpless offspring, yet, from the nature of the 

 locality, escape would have been easy. 



The summer time is occupied by the cares of providing for and 

 protecting the young; after they are old enough to shift for them- 

 selves, as autumn advances, the kaka usually becomes very fat : as 

 it is considered savoury food great numbers are annually destroyed. 

 It is in winter time that it appears to the greatest disadvantage,' 

 especially during a severe winter in our southern climate; when the' 

 bush is metamorphosed with fantastic snow-wreaths, it seems out 

 of character with the scene ; food may be scarce, for with ruffled 

 feathers it sits moping and nearly silent— a picture of dull melan- 

 choly. Towards the close of winter (August) we have known 

 it devour with avidity the hard seed of the kowhai {Sophora 

 tetraptera): at this period gardens and shrubberies are visited, 

 and blossoms of almond trees and flowering shrubs eagerly ran- 

 sacked : as winter passes away, with its coarse fare, returning 

 spring restores the kaka's spiightliness, and he begins to fare 

 daintily. In September we have observed it poised on the slender 

 bough of some tall Panax, luxuriating on the viscid nectar of its 

 blossoms : happy enough it looks when thus seen through some 

 opening in the bush, its deep red breast-feathers lit up by the 

 slanting rays of the declining sun ; sated at last, it cleanses its huge 

 beak against a neighbouring bough, then, with grateful chatter, 

 glides off to join its fellows. 



Insects form no inconsiderable portion of the food of the kaka : 

 how diligently they are sought for may be judged from the heaps 

 of bark-chips that lie beneath decaying trees: often it may be 

 noticed on the ground tearing away the mossy clothing of the huge 

 gnarled roots that spread around ; even the soft rotten boughs are 

 gnawed to obtain the larvaj of some of the larger bush insects. 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. VI. 3 ^ 



