GENERAL NOTES. 87 
at Albany, and experiments with the living -birds in captivity is 
greatly in support of this. In several of the crevices where I 
captured them I found a conglomerate of exuvie ranging from 
three to twelve inches thick. From the under surface and through 
_ the mass to nearly the upper surface this conglomerate is thickly 
| studded with owl’s castings composed entirely of light brown hair 
| (which is unquestionably that of the Kiori Maori) and small bones. 
_ The birds, moreover, in a captive state, have a greater preference 
for young or half-grown rats than for any other food. The power- 
ful flight of this owl would enable it to travel many miles during 
| the night in search of food, as, were a considerable number 
_ located in one place, they would soon reduce the supply in the 
' immediate neighbourhood. This applies to the period when 
| the Kori Maori existed. The castings more recently deposited 
_ among the rocks, are composed chiefly of elytra and legs 
of beetles. They likewise subsist on rats, mice and lizards, 
_ but their principal food is the various large species of Coleoptera 
/ common among the debris beneath the rocks where they live ; 
therefore, under the changed conditions, we need no longer 
/ wonder at the rapid decline of this splendid owl. Besides those 
_ captured alive, I found the remains of nearly a dozen more, which 
had died in the rocks. This will prove incontestably that the 
| species is rapidly becoming extinct, the cause being an insuffi- 
| cient supply of proper food, the coleoptera on which it subsists 
_ being totally inadequate to support thislarge bird. In captivity 
they soon become tame, and the superior food produces a marked 
| improvement on the birds ; ina few weeks they become fatter 
| and stronger, and increase a little in size. 
They begin to breed both in the wild and captive state in the 
months of September and October, and sit on the eggs for 
twenty-five days. During this period it is singularly interesting to 
| watch the male catering for its mate. I‘kept a pair in a large pack- 
_ ing case with a dark recess in cne corner, and when the female 
was hatching her eggs, the male regularly carried every morsel of 
food supplied to them into the dark recess, and fed its mate 
| sitting on the eggs. All during the building season the birds 
are noiseless, rarely ever uttering a sound, except when the male 
is carrying the tood to the nest, when he uttered a low hoarse call, 
the female rising from the eggs and responding with a peevish 
twitter, when receiving the food. This “touch of nature” is 
very pleasing to observe, and from it we may infer that the male 
| has a “hard struggle in supplying food to its mate during the - 
| period of incubation.” When the young are hatched they are 
fed by the parent birds on large blackish worms procured from 
| the edges of swamps, where I have observed the fresh trail of the 
| latter from the previous night. They rise to thesurface and change 
| quarters during the night, when they are picked up by the birds 
‘and conveyed to the nest to feed their young. The uncontrol- 
lable ovfburst of laughter, ic. the call peculiar to this 
| Species, is only heard when the birds are on the wing and 
generally on dark and drizzly nights or immediately 
