Birds of New Zealand, 35 
genous rat ever existed in this country; and supposing even 
that there had been a “ native rat/’ it could only have been 
exterminated by other rats and mice taking its place. There 
is also no evidence to show that the Laughing Owl was for¬ 
merly “ more plentiful than it now is/ 3 or that it has now al¬ 
most totally disappeared. During a short tour of six weeks 
through the Nelson province last summer I twice heard it, 
once at Fox Hill, and again on the river Conway. 
Besides its laugh it has a peculiar note, like two branches 
of a tree rubbing together, repeated twice over at considerable 
intervals. 
Its laugh is very different from that of the bird that I heard 
on the Little Barrier Island (Trans. N. Z. Inst. i. p. 162), 
which I think must be of another species. 
Stringops habroptilus. 
Dr. Buber's mistake in supposing that the superficial ana¬ 
logy of the facial disk of this bird to that of an Owl, as well 
as the softness of its plumage, and its nocturnal habits, seem 
“ to prove that it supplies in the grand scheme of nature the 
connecting link between the Owls and Parrots,” has been al¬ 
ready pointed out (Ann. Nat. Hist. 1872, p. 477), so that I 
have only to record my total dissent from Dr. Buber's 
views. Dr. Buber also states that this “ bird is known to be 
a ground-feeder with a voracious appetite, and to subsist 
chiefly on mosses.” That it may sometimes eat moss is 
probable; but I have tried in vain to induce it to do so in cap¬ 
tivity, and one that escaped in a garden in Auckland re¬ 
mained for a fortnight in a clump of pine trees feeding on the 
flowers, and was never seen to descend to the ground. He 
also states that “ there is no physiological reason why the 
Kakapo should not be as good a flier as any other Parrot.” 
[ should have thought that the small pectoral muscles, almost 
total absence of keel on the sternum, and soft primary fea¬ 
thers of the wing, were quite sufficient physiological reasons. 
Nestor occidentalis. 
I agree with Dr. Finsch that this species must be united 
with N. meridionalis . 
d 2 
