56 cassell's book of birds. 



Moa, the Dronte, and other species recently become extinct. "The Maoris assure me," says Haast, 

 " that the Kakapo is brave, and often confronts the dogs with success ; but this cannot be credited 

 if their dogs are worth anything, for mine never had any serious battle with it. At first, the dog 

 was attacked both with beak and claws, but it soon learnt to conquer its game by biting it through 

 the back." An idea was formerly entertained that the Kakapos were nocturnal in their habits, but our 

 observations lead us to believe that this is not exactly the case. We generally heard their voices 

 about an hour after sunset, in places which were rendered dark and obscured by thick foliage, and 

 they then began to sweep about, attracted by the light. We, however, twice saw these birds during 

 the day feeding upon the ground, and strictly upon their guard against approaching danger. On 

 the first occasion, about noon on a cloudy day, we were returning through an open wood from 

 the western coast, and saw the Kakapo sitting upon an uprooted tree, not far from the Haast 

 river ; as we approached, it quickly disappeared, but was caught by the dogs. The second 

 time, on a clear day, as we entered a deep ravine, we saw one of these birds perched ten 

 feet high upon a fuchsia-tree, the berries of which it was eating. As soon as it saw us, it 

 fell, as though shot, to the earth, and disappeared beneath the surrounding blocks of stone. 

 The most astonishing thing was, that the bird made no use of its wings ; indeed, did not even 

 open them to break its fall. In order to ascertain whether it would either fly or flutter, we 

 followed, and having with us a Kakapo that had been taken uninjured by the dogs, we set it free 

 upon a large, open, gravelly spot, where there was plenty of room to run away, if it wished to do 

 so, or to raise itself into the air, even should it require a large space for that purpose. We were 

 much surprised to find that it only ran to the nearest thicket, and that much faster than we could 

 have thought possible from the structure of its toes and the bulk of its body. Its movements 

 resembled those of a barn-door fowl. AVe stood on one side of it, and it appeared to us that it kept 

 its wings quite close to the body ; but one of our companions, who was behind it, observed that the 

 wings were slightly raised, but motionless ; so that doubtless they are employed more as a means of 

 balancing the bird than to accelerate its progress. Though its shape is not suited to running, it can 

 progress in this manner to a considerable distance, as we often saw by its tracks, which extended 

 sometimes for more than a mile over sand and shingle down to the bank of the river. Lyall, 

 however, has seen this bird flying, though only for trifling distances. " During our hunt," he says, 

 " we only saw the Kakapo fly when, having climbed a hollow tree, it wished to reach another in the 

 neighbourhood. From the first tree it flew down to the next in height, making its way up each in 

 turn, climbing very quickly to the top by the help of its tail ; the motion of the wings was very 

 trifling — indeed, almost imperceptible. 



" The cry of the Kakapo is a hoarse croak, which changes into a discordant screech when the bird 

 is angry or hungry. The Maoris declare that the noise these creatures make is sometimes deafening 

 during the winter, when they congregate in great numbers, and greet each other on their arrival or 

 departure. The stomach of a specimen we killed contained a pale or almost white homogeneous mass, 

 without any trace of flesh, so that, doubtless, its food consists partly of roots and partly of leaves 

 and delicate shoots of plants. We observed that at one place where the birds were very numerous, 

 a leguminous plant, growing on the banks of the river, had all its buds nipped off; and learnt 

 from a boatman, who had lived in that place for many years engaged in the whale fisheries, that the 

 Kakapo was the offender. We also found its beak covered with hardened dirt. This species, 

 he told us, requires a great deal of river water in order to dilute the pulpy mass of vegetable 

 matter in its crop. Except in two instances, in which berries had been eaten, we found the 

 crop always filled with half-digested moss, and so distended and heavy that it weighed many ounces j 

 the bird, moreover, appeared much smaller when the crop was emptied. The quantity of innu- 



