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during the day each inhabits separately its hole, and that only after dark do they meet for feeding 
and for social intercourse.” 
In his Nelson report *, the same naturalist informs us that “ in former years the Maruia Plains 
were a celebrated hunting-ground of the Maoris for this bird. They generally went there on fine 
moonlight nights, when the berries of the tutu ( Canaria sarmentosa), a favourite food of the String ops, 
were ripe, and ran them down partly with dogs, or even killed them with long sticks upon the tutu 
bushes. Another mode of capture was, when they had found their holes, to introduce a long stick, 
to which they had fastened several strong flax snares. Peeling the bird with the end of it, they 
twisted the stick until some part of the bird was caught in the snares, and thus drew it out. The 
cry of the Kakapo, heard during the night, very much resembles the gobble of a Turkey.” 
The following notes were contributed to ‘The Ibis’ (1875, pp. 390, o91) by the Baron A. von 
Hfigel : — 
“ One thing I can boast of already is having been in the midst of the Ivakapos : but I did not 
accomplish this without some trouble ; for the Stringops, unfortunately, is driven yeaily further and 
further up country by the settlers, and now it is only met with in the most lonely mountain -districts. 
But I hardly think that any trouble and labour would be too great to see the bird as I saw it, at 
home, and, what is even better, procure a fine series of specimens. My trip was undertaken from 
Invercargill, and consisted of forty miles by rail, twenty-four in a coach, and some fifty more on horse- 
back, with finally a ten-mile row up and across Lake Te-Anau. This brought me into the midst of 
the Parrots. The whole ground in the bush, which is covered with thick moss, is honeycombed with 
their burrows — which emit a strong scent, a sort of greasy essence of Parrot-bouquet. The entrance 
to eac h as i n fact is the whole ground — is strewn with their excrement, so as almost to make one 
believe that a flock of sheep had been grazing there. I had an old Scotch shepherd and his dog with 
me, and they both proved very useful. The latter caught the birds very cleverly by the back, and 
invariably brought them already killed to us with their feathers in perfect order ; but some we lost 
through his killing them in the bush instead of on the open tract of bracken where we were posted, 
and then feeding on them quietly before we could make out his whereabouts. The note of the 
Stringops is very peculiar, quite unlike that of a bird. I think it is when feeding that they indulge 
in a series of the most perfect porcine squeals and grunts. It is really as like a young pig as 
any thing can be. Then their other note, which I think answers more to a call or warning, is a very 
loud aspirated scream, with a sort of guttural sound mixed in with it, almost impossible to describe. 
Then, when pursued and caught by the dog, it emits a low harsh sort of croak ; but some were 
perfectly silent to the last The food I found to consist of the bracken ( Pteris aquilina), 
both frond-tips and roots, but chiefly the former. I examined six ; and all were crammed with it ; 
but what surprised me much was to find parts of two moderate-sized lizards in the gizzard of an old 
male. I think this is quite a new fact in the Stringops life-history ” f . 
Mr. Eeischek says (Trans. N.-Z. Inst. vol. xvii. pp. 195-197) : — “In April 1884 I found under 
the root of a red birch, in a burrow, two young Kakapos, covered with white down. During the 
same month I found several other young birds of this species. So late in the season as the 12th May, 
Mr. Docherty found a Kakapo’s nest containing a female sitting upon an egg, with a chick just 
* Loc. ext. p. 7. 
f In this communication the Baron mentioned that although he was unahle then to give a complete life-history of the 
Kakapo, his observations did not altogether agree with those recorded by me on the authority of Sir J. von Haast, who was the 
first to study the bird in its native haunts. As, however, he did not either then or subsequently point out in what respects the 
account appeared to him faulty, I have, since my arrival in England, written to Baron von Hiigel asking him for the desiied 
information, and he has kindly sent me the following : — “ The notes I promised, about the habits of the Kakapo, to ‘ The 
Ibis ’ (which fact until you reminded me of it I had completely forgotten) were never sent. I do not remember now the point 
in which I thought Haast in error.” 
/ 
