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broad and powerful ; the upper mandible has a peculiar rasp-like character within, while the lower mandible 
is deeply fluted on its outer surface, with a worn, notched process near the extremity. The plumage is soft 
but compact ; the wings apparently well developed, but useless for purposes of flight, with the quills much 
curved or bent ; the tail long and slightly decurved, the feathers composing it acuminate and sometimes 
with the tips abraded ; the projecting feathers on the cheeks loose, with disunited filaments and shafts much 
produced ■ the legs strong and well formed ; the tarsi covered with elevated rounded scales ; the toes 
similarly protected in their basal portion, scutell ate towards the end ; the claws strong, well-arched, sharp 
on their inner edge, and with fine points. 
This is one of the very remarkable forms peculiar to New Zealand, and has been appropriately 
termed an Owl Parrot. Dr. Sclater refers to it as “ one of the most wonderful, perhaps, of all living 
birds.” As its name Stringops indicates, its face bears a superficial likeness to that of an Owl. 
In all the essential characteristics of structure it is a true Parrot ; but in the possession of a facial disk 
(in which respect it differs from all other known Parrots), in the soft texture of its plumage, and 
especially in its decidedly nocturnal habits, it betrays a striking resemblance to the Owl tribe. Its 
toes, as in all other members of the order, are zygodaetyle ; but, as pointed out by Mr. Wood in 
an interesting article communicated to the ‘Student’ (1870, p. 492), the foot of an Owl, when the 
bird is perched, considerably resembles that of a Parrot, as the outer toe is then placed backwards 
with the hind one, so that the bird’s feet may be said to be temporarily zygodaetyle, whereas those 
of the Parrot are permanently so. 
Although it may, perhaps, be morphologically incorrect to say that this form supplies a quasi- 
connecting link between the Owls and the Parrots, there can be no doubt that the Kakapo, in some 
of its external characters as well as in its mode of life (as Mr. A. E. Wallace has well expressed it), 
“ imitates the Owl ” in a very remarkable manner. 
Although exclusively a vegetable-eater, its habit of hiding during the day in holes of trees and 
dark burrows exhibits a further point of resemblance to the nocturnal birds of prey. As these latter 
are in reality night Hawks, so is this bird, what the native name indeed implies, a night Parrot ; 
and the analogy thus presented harmonizes with the idea expressed above. 
The feathers surrounding the eyes and filling the lores differ from those on the other parts of 
the body not only in being of a lighter colour, but also in form and structure, being narrow and 
penicillate, with the shaft considerably produced. Those overlapping the base of the lower mandible 
are more stiff and elongated. 
All who have studied the bird in its natural state agree on this point, that the wings, although 
sufficiently large and strong, are perfectly useless for purposes of flight, and that the bird merely 
spreads them to break the force of its fall in descending from a higher point to a lower when suddenly 
surprised ; in some instances (as one of the writers quoted below informs us) even this use of them is 
neglected, the bird falling to the ground like a stone. 
We are naturally led to ask how it is that a bird possessing large and well-formed wings should 
be found utterly incapable of flight. On removing the skin from the body it is seen that the muscles 
by means of which the movements of these anterior limbs are regulated are fairly well developed, but 
are largely overlaid with fat. The bird is known to be a ground-feeder, with a voracious appetite, 
and to subsist chiefly on vegetable mosses, which, possessing but little nutriment, require to be eaten 
in large quantities ; and the late Sir J. von Haast informed me that he had sometimes seen them with 
their crops so distended and heavy that the birds were scarcely able to move. 
These mosses cover the ground and the roots or trunks of prostrate trees, requiring to be sought 
for on foot ; and the bird’s habit of feeding at night, in a country where there are no indigenous 
predatory quadrupeds, would render flight a superfluous exertion, and a faculty of no special advan- 
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