81 



Both of oui^ species of Fljcatchev remain with vis during the whole year, 

 merely shifting their quarters from near the sea level to the higher parts of the 

 bushy gullies. 



"What is the habitat of R. tristis, Honib. 1 Where could one learn anything 

 of its habits 1 



No. 51. — Nestor meridionalis, Gml. 

 Kaka. 

 (See also Yol. ii., p. 64.) 



Our representatives of the gorgeously painted Psittacidce possess little of 

 the brilliancy of plumage or gracefulness of form which distinguishes so many 

 of the family in other lands ; our Kaka, in his suit of sober brown slightly 

 flushed with red, might be passed over in a collection almost without notice 

 by many to whom his quaint habits are unknown, and even to those who are 

 most familiar with the bird, it conveys little if any impression in association 

 with the parrot tribe ; it is never called by that name except, perhaps, there 

 is a desire on the part of some old settler to impress a new comer with a 

 proper sense of having arrived in a foreign country, when our noisy Kakas 

 are spoken of or pointed out as "our parrots." 



Arboreal in its habits, with truth it may be said that our Kaka lives but 

 amongst trees, not merely seeking the forest for the sake of the shelter in which 

 to rest or to rear its young, but it finds its living on and amongst trees, and in 

 the forest it may be found throughout the whole year ; nor is the economy of 

 the bush iininfluenced by the habits of this bird, as v/e shall presently endeavour 

 to show. Although noisy and restless, the Kaka at times may be, and often is, 

 observed as quiet as any bird in the bush. Let anyone ramble into one of our 

 timber forests, far beyond the outside shrubby zone resounding with the cries of 

 many birds, where all is so still and silent, and he will find that there are 

 tiines, about the noontide hour, when the wanderer might almost dream that 

 he had strayed beyond the reach of sound, with all its soothing tones and harsh 

 discordances ; that he might — 



"In this desert inaccessible, 



Under the shade of melancholy boughs, 

 Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time;" 



all too soon the spell is broken, frequently by the wail of the ubiquitous weka, 

 the clear ringing note of the koromako from the damp moss-clad gully, and 

 quite as often by the hard-working Kaka dropping a chip of the rough hard 

 bark that had been silently stripped from some lofty tree. It may be thought 

 not out of place to make brief allusion to the influence which some of the 

 habits of the Kaka exercise on the condition of the bush ; admitted amongst 

 the Triclioglossincn as a honey-eating biixl, in its search after this portion of its 

 food, it may cause the fertilization of the blossoms of trees, and thus assist in 



M 



