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freckled and mottled with blackish brown. Irides black; hill yellowish white, darker at the base and along 
the fluting of the lower mandible ; tarsi and toes yellowish brown ; claws darker. Extreme length 26 inches ; 
wing, from flexure, 12 ; tail 10 ; bill, along the ridge (from base of cere) 2, along the edge of lower 
mandible 1 ; tarsus l - 75 ; longer fore toe and claw 3 ; longer hind toe and claw 2'5. 
Obs. The sexes are alike in plumage. Individuals vary a good deal both in the brilliancy of their tints and in 
the details of their colouring. The ground-colour of the upper parts varies from a dull sap-green to a bright 
grass-green, and in some examples the whole of the plumage of the underparts is strongly suffused with 
lemon-yellow. The barred character of the individual feather is more defined in some specimens, while in 
others the light markings on the quills and tail-feathers are softened to a pale yellow. Individual birds also 
differ perceptibly in size, owing probably to conditions of age and sex. 
Captain Preece, R.M., has in his possession the skin of a Kakapo obtained at Hikurangi, in the North 
Island. Its plumage is in no respect different from that of the southern bird. Length 25 inches ; wing, 
from flexure, 11 ; tail 8; tarsus 2; longer fore toe and claw 2‘5. 
Varieties. Of this species there is a beautifully marked variety in Mr. James Brogden’s collection of New- 
Zealand birds, at Portlicawl. The whole of the plumage is largely suffused with yellow, especially on the 
underparts, where each feather has a broad irregular central spot of pale yellow, edged with dusky brown ; 
towards the tips the feathers are greenish yellow. The upper parts are bright green, prettily rayed with 
black, and varied more or less obscurely with yellow, the feathers of the nape and sides of the neck having 
spear-head points of bright yellow near the tips. The tail is conspicuously marked at regular intervals with 
vandyked bars of clear lemon-yellow, getting darker towards the tips ; these yellow markings are edged with 
black, and the interspaces are yellowish brown, more or less freckled and marbled with black. The primaries 
and secondaries are similarly marked on their outer webs, but the yellow is not quite so clear. 
A specimen in my collection has the cheeks of a bright reddish brown, this colour fading away on the 
edges. There is a somewhat similar example in the Otago Museum, with the crown, sides of the face, chin, 
and upper part of the throat dingy reddish brown. I suspect that this coloration results from some vege- 
table stain, inasmuch as in this specimen I observe that the ridge and sides of the upper mandible and the 
fluted grooves in the lower are similarly stained. 
In Mr. Silver’s fine collection of New-Zealand Birds at Letcomb Manor there is an abnormally small 
specimen, the measurements being : — Total length 20 inches; wing, from flexure, 105 ; tail 7‘ 5; bill, along 
the ridge l - 5, along the edge of lower mandible -7 5. The plumage as in the ordinary bird, except that, on 
the left cheek, there is a patch of yellow about an inch in extent, completely covering the ear-coverts and 
extending downwards. 
I have examined the type specimen of Mr. G. R. Gray’s Strigops greyii in the British Museum and 
have come to the conclusion that it is simply an accidental variety, although a very singular one, of the true 
S. habroptilus. The specimen is in very bad condition, the quills being much worn and abraded, and the 
tail worn down to a mere stump; indeed the whole of the plumage is dingy and soiled, apparently the result 
of long confinement. The feathers of the upper parts, instead of being sap-green at the ends, are of a dull 
greenish blue, changing in certain lights to a purplish blue. There is, moreover, somewhat less of the 
terminal colour ; and as the barred markings on the basal portion of the feathers are fulvous white instead 
of yellow, the back has a more variegated appearance. The entire plumage of the underparts is a pale 
yellowish fulvous, mottled, except on the abdomen, with brown. The cheeks and feathers overlapping the 
lower mandible are the same as in ordinary examples, but without any yellow tinge. On the sides and 
flanks the feathers are slightly tinged with blue, but of a duller tint than on the upper parts ; thighs deeply 
stained with yellow. The newest of the tail-feathers (i. e. the stumpy portion that remains) is rayed in the 
same manner as in ordinary examples, but without the yellow element, showing a decided tendency to 
albinism. In the wing-feathers, in which also the yellow colour is absent, the bars appear at first sight 
more regular and distinct ; but on closer examination it will be found that in both wings the broad inner 
secondaries and the scapulars have been torn out (doubtless due to the bird’s captivity), and the barred 
effect is therefore more conspicuous. Although, among the numerous examples that have come under 
my notice, I have never seen one in any degree approaching this condition, yet I have detected in some a 
tendency in the feathers of the back to assume a bluish margin, and in all specimens these feathers have a 
bright metallic lustre on their under surface. There is no means of determining the exact length of the 
2 A 
