2 go THE ANIMALS OF NE W ZEALAND 



mainly upon running to escape from danger. It is nocturnal in habits, and an 

 inveterate egg-stealer, doing much harm in the reserves where the native birds 

 receive Government protection. A second species of the same genus inhabits New 

 Caledonia. 



Special interest attaches to a much larger member of the same group, the 

 tahake, or Mantell's gallinule (Notornis mantelli), now almost, if not completely, 

 exterminated. In size this bird is nearly the equal of a turkey, while in colour 

 it is indigo-blue, with the under wing-coverts white, and the beak and feet red. 

 In general appearance it may be compared to an overgrown moorhen, but with 

 shorter and thicker toes, a smaller forehead, and the primary quills of the wings 

 so short and yielding as to be quite useless for flight. This strange bird was first 

 described in 1847 by Sir R. Owen on the evidence of fossil bones forwarded from 

 New Zealand by Dr. Walter Mantell. In 1849 Dr. Mantell's son obtained the skin 

 and bones of a specimen from sealers who had caught it with the aid of their dogs 

 on the south coast of the Middle Island. In 1852 another specimen was killed on 

 Secretary Island, opposite Deas Cove, Thompson Sound. The bones were thrown 

 away, but the skin was preserved. Twenty-seven years elapsed before any further 

 trace of the bird was found, and it was supposed to be extinct; but in 1879 a man 

 was catching rabbits in a place called the Wilderness, on the eastern side of Lake 

 Te Anau, when his dog brought him a specimen alive. It was killed, and hung up 

 to the ridge-pole of a tent, where it was seen, recognised, and eventually sent to 

 England. This specimen was sold by auction in London in 18S2 for £110, and is 

 now in the Dresden Museum. In 1884 part of a skeleton was found near the 

 southernmost arm of Lake Te Anau ; and it is preserved in the Dunedin Museum. 

 Another specimen was obtained alive in 1898, since which date nothing appears 

 to have been heard of the species. A second species (N. alba), which was wholly 

 white, formerly inhabited Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands. 



Two generic types of parrots, one of which spends much of its 

 time on the ground, are amongst the most characteristic of New 

 Zealand birds. The first of these is the kakapo, or owl-parrot (Stringops 

 habroptilus), in which the wings are short and seldom used for flight, and then 

 only for short distances. On the ground, however, this bird is extremely active, 

 and it is but seldom that it leaves this for trees. The general colour of the 

 plumage is mottled green ; and the softness of the whole plumage and disc of 

 feathers round the, eye, coupled with the nocturnal habits of the bird, have given 

 rise to the name of owl-parrot. The name S. greyi has been applied to a specimen 

 which is probably only an abnormal variety of the typical species. Kakapo 

 inhabit both open forests and mountain districts, where they lay their two or three 

 eggs either in a burrow at the root of a tree or in clefts of rocks. Their cry has 

 been variously described as a groan, a croak, and a shriek. So averse to flight are 

 these parrots, that they are successfully hunted by the Maoris, and, in fact, are in 

 danger of extermination. It is asserted that the kakapo breeds only once in two 

 years. This, however, is not all, for it is stated that, in place of some individuals 

 nesting in one year and others in the succeeding season, the whole of the birds 

 will breed in one particular year, while in the following year none will do so. 



It is also stated that "months before the appointed breeding-season the male 



