OWL-PARROT. 



139 



March. The natives assert that, when the breeding-season is over, the kakapo 

 lives in societies of five or six in the same hole ; and they sa}^ that it is a provident 

 bird, and lays up in the fine season a store of fern-root for use in the bad weather." 

 The extermination or reduction in the numbers of the owl-parrot in certain 

 districts is attributed to the ravages of dogs, cats, or rats, which have run wild in 

 many parts of the island ; and it is not improbable that in some parts, at least, pigs 

 have likewise had a share in the work of destruction. According to Haast these 

 birds are generally found in the open mossy glades of the beech-forests ; although 

 they also frequent open hillsides, wdiere they hide among blocks of stone. On two 

 occasions the same observer met with a single kakapo during broad daylight, from 

 which he is led to consider that these parrots are not so strictly nocturnal as has 

 been supposed. 



