O WL-PAR ROT 
T 39 
March. The natives assert that, when the breeding-season is over, the kakapo 
lives in societies of five or six in the same hole; and they say that it is a provident 
bird, and lays up in the fine season a store of fern-root for use in the bad weather.” 
The extermination or reduction in the numbers of the owl-parrot in certain 
districts is attributed to the ravages of dogs, cats, or rats, which have run wild in 
many parts of the island; and it is not improbable that in some parts, at least, pigs 
have likewise had a share in the work of destruction. According to Haast these 
birds are generally found in the open mossy glades of the beech-forests; although 
they also frequent open hillsides, where they hide among blocks of stone. On two 
occasions the same observer met with a single kakapo during broad daylight, from 
which he is led to consider that these parrots are not so strictly nocturnal as has 
been supposed. 
