CHAPTER XLV. 



OWLS (Concluded.) 



Mention, in the last chapter, of the relationship of owls 

 with parrots reminds me that the Psittacides, to which family 

 the parrots belong, have not even been referred to in the 

 chats already published. There was, of course, a reason. In 

 the first place China is not well represented in the parrot 

 family. David enumerates but six species, all of which are 

 of the smaller varieties, parroquets, etc. In the second place 

 they are all confined to the warm south and are never seen 

 in most of the Chinese provinces, and in the third, it is with 

 regret that I have to confess to an utter ignorance of the 

 whole tribe in the wild state. The connexion between the 

 two families, owls and parrots, is however very closely seen 

 still in New Zealand, where there is an owl-parrot whose 

 whole life is spent on the ground, the wings through long 

 disuse being almost useless. It is known from its cry as the 

 "kakapo," and is a vegetable feeder. Therein it differs from 

 the degenerate kea,also of New Zealand, which has abandoned 

 its plant diet for an almost exclusive one of flesh. How this 

 evolution has been reached is not exactly known, as there are 

 various theories respecting it. There is no theory, unfort- 

 unately, but the most painful certainty, as to the manner in 

 which it now seeks and obtains one of its pet luxuries the 

 .fat on sheeps' kidneys. It alights on the back of its victim, 

 and by means of its formidable beak proceeds to tear through 

 the flesh until the delicacy is exposed. That eaten, the bird 

 appears to be satisfied, and of course the sheep dies. Repeti- 

 tion of this practice makes the kea's depraved taste something 

 of first consequence to the New Zealand rancher, and natur- 

 ally the war is bitter. 



Having made acquaintance with owls and parrots with 

 interchangeable appetities from grass through flesh to fish 

 and frogs, we may, with due apologies for the digression, 

 continue the record of the remaining owls of China which 

 deserve separate notice. There are one or two represent- 

 atives of the genus Scops, but they call for no detailed descrip- 

 tion. There is also a representative of the Surnia class, one 

 of which, S. Passerina, is a pretty little thing about the size of a 

 quail, and with something of its colouring. Its food consists 

 mainly of insects and mice. 



