138 MADAGASCAR LOVE-BIRD. 



not unfrequently, count some hundreds of them; yet such settlements 

 are always selected with so much foresight, that both from above and 

 beneath they are inaccessible to beasts of prey/ 



"The above account is quoted at full length by Dr. Brehm and also 

 by Dr. Russ. 



"Ernest Gibson says that flocks of them pass through Buenos Ayres 

 night and morning: 'They come, as I suppose, from the cliffs, or 

 Baranken of Arroyos, on this side of the Sierra de Tantil, where they 

 breed/ Dr. Karl Russ says they nest as described, in the Andes, 

 Oordilleren, Tosca Cliffs, etc. According to Cunningham each nest 

 contains from three to six eggs. Molina also speaks of them. Darwin, 

 too, observed that this Conure nests in burrows in rocks, and in 

 earth. 



"The Ground Parrot (Pezoporus formosus), German name Der Erd- 

 sittich, Sampf, or Grundpapagei. 'The white eggs are laid on the bare 

 ground, both parents sitting by turns': authority Dr. Brehm, quoting 

 from Gould. The same observations are greatly extended by Muller's, 

 then superintendent of the Botanical Gardens at Melbourne, and though 

 the latter apply to a second variety of the family, der Hdhlensittich 

 (Pezoporus occidentalis) , it is very probable that they also apply to the 

 Green Ground Parrot {Pezoporus formosus). 



"The Great Ground Parrot {Strigops Habroptilus) , German name Der 

 Kalcapo, oder der Didenpapagei. Lyell says of this bird, The Great 

 Ground Parrot lives in burrows under or among the roots of trees, and 

 is also noticed under arches of overhanging rocks. As the roots of 

 many varieties of trees in New Zealand raise themselves partly from 

 the earth, hollows under them are very frequent; it appeared to us, 

 however, as if those in which we met with the Kakapo had been 

 widened, but we sought in vain for any traces of the earth that had 

 been displaced/ 



"Haast comes to the same conclusion: 'Although all the different 

 dwellings that I examined were natural hollows, yet I found one which 

 had been artificially constructed; on the north bank of the river Haast, 

 near- the mouth of the Clark, which is now two or three metres high 

 (about nine and a half feet), were several round holes near the upper 

 surface, through which the dog could not pass: he immediately began 

 to smell on the upper surface, and commenced scratching away the 

 earth on one spot, where he hit exactly upon the end of the burrow, 

 and soon drew out the bird. This burrow was decidedly of artificial 

 construction, so that it must be supposed that the bird possesses the 

 power of digging/ 



"Lyell gives the following account of the brood: — 'During the latter 



