138 
MADAOA80AB LOVE-BIRD. 
not unfrequentlyj 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, 
Cordilleren, 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 Gnmdpapagei. '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 Miiller’s, 
then superintendent of the Botanical Gardens at Melbourne, and though 
the latter apply to a second variety of the family, der Hdhlensiitich 
{Pezoporus occidentalis) , it is very probable that they also apply to the 
Green Ground Parrot {Pezoporus formosus). 
“The Great Ground Parrot {Strigops Ilahroptilus) , German name Der 
Kalcapo, oder der Eulenpapagei. 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 Kew 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 
