Sydney Porter—Notes on New Zealand Birds 207


Quite wide tracks are made from the sleeping holes to the

feeding grounds and old pioneers have told me how surprised they

have been at the very large foot-prints made by the birds in the

soft earth. With long disuse the muscles of the wings have

atrophied and the bird is no longer able to fly. Flight of course

was not necessary to this bird, for nearly all its food was obtained

from the ground and it had no enemies to contend with. Few

birds are stranger or more highly specialized than the Kakapo.

Outwardly it bears a resemblance to the owls; it possesses well

defined facial discs, it has the soft downy plumage of the owls, and

it is one of the very few parrots which are strictly nocturnal. It

is said that this bird is a connecting link between the owls and the

parrots but this is impossible. The Kakapo has, owing to its

nocturnal habits, doubtless taken on some of the superficial

characteristics of the owls, otherwise it bears no resemblance to

them anatomically.


These birds feed mainly on the mosses which are so plentiful

in the New Zealand forests, and for this purpose it was supplied

with an exceedingly large crop. Old writers have stated that

when this was full the birds were almost unable to move.


In the days of the Maori Wars, between 1850 and 1860, when

bands of British soldiers were meandering through most of the

forested parts of the North Island killing Maoris and destroying

their villages there is little doubt that the bird life must have

suffered considerably, especially such large birds as the Kakapos,

etc. When the country in the South Island was opened up, the

slaughter was terrible, the birds forming the chief article of food

for the prospectors and saw millers. Dogs also played great havoc

with these birds as they were very easy to track down to their

burrows during the day. Being unfit to combat any type of enemy

and being very slow breeders (it is said that only one egg is laid

every other year) it is easy to understand how the numbers of

this bird so quickly diminished.


In the old days the Kakapo was frequently kept in captivity

and was occasionally exported to various European Zoos. By

all accounts it proved an exceedingly interesting and intelligent

pet, especially for a nocturnal bird. It fed largely on various



