July 31, 1909 ] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
197 
a wise arrangement to prevent too close breed¬ 
ing, for I think it is quite common for many 
animals to fall out with their young ones when 
they grow up. At this season, when food is 
scarce, they are the most unsociable creatures 
living, for each one seems to have half a square 
mile to itself. 
There is just one more little note I have to 
make—that is, on the scarcity of “scratching- 
holes” here compared with those at Te Anau. 
It is true that they are less troubled here with 
vermin. That may be one reason, and another 
may be the very great scarcity of anything like 
dry places in this bush. However, we found a 
hill-top near the southeast corner of Cascade 
that was nearly covered with pathways and 
scratching-holes. The ground all round looked 
as if there had been an attempt made to clear 
it of ferns and sticks, and every root was bitten 
and peeled as if they had tried to remove it. 
I walked all over it and had a long look at it, 
and somehow the idea was forced on me that 
this was their plav-ground or ball-room, and that 
if I could come here in the season with the eyes 
of a cat I might learn something of their social 
forms and customs. 
On December 26 , 1897 , we anchored in Cas¬ 
cade Harbor, and long before dark we heard 
the kakapos booming, after a silence of two 
years, and later. on in the evening we heard 
them from all sides, though we had so often 
hunted there that we thought we had pretty well 
cleared them out of that place. Seven days pre¬ 
viously we were under Mount Pender, where 
there are plenty of kakapos, but we heard no 
booming, so that they must have just com¬ 
menced. At Te Anau they used to commence 
about the xst of December, which date they kept 
to fairly well all the years I was there. 
Next day we went hunting on the west side 
of Cascade, and caught three very fat kakapos. 
There were no berries or seeds on anv of the 
trees, and we were puzzled to know what they 
got so fat on. There was a tiny seed or blossom 
on the carpet of green moss that covers that 
:ountrv, and I. often saw little holes that they 
scraped out with their beaks, perhaps looking 
for truffles or fungi of some sort; but they chew 
r 61r /? 0 ^ so . wel ! ' n ^eir milling beaks that 
1 could not identify it. It was important to 
enow what they were eating then, because it 
night solve the mystery as to their intermitting 
breeding seasons, but I could not find it out. 
fheir crops contained mostly a green pulp, with 
;ome of a lighter color, but what it was I’could 
lot tell. 
The male can swell up his air-sack (of which 
he female has no trace) nearly as big as his 
>ody, so that h e must- b e a formidable-looking 
ellow on parade. I never saw one booming, 
lowever, for they never boom in captivity. 
I took a special trip to Wet Jacket Arm to 
ry and get better acquainted with these birds 
md on the 21 st of January, 1898 , climbed a high 
idge southwest of Oke Island. It was very 
•teep and rough, and all along its narrow top 
or half a mile were “dusting-holes,” as I used 
,° call them, but there was not a particle of 
lust in them, as there had been about an inch 
>t ram every day for a month. So “dusting- 
iole is I think, therefore, a bad name; “bower” 
vould be more suitable. They were about 
'ignteen inches in diameter, fairly level on the 
>ottom, and three inches deep, with steep sides. 
n some the peaty earth was pressed down firmly 
j y naked hand, while in others it was 
reshly raked up and loose. They were all con¬ 
fected by fresh, well-beaten pathways, so that 
f S° od P? ar) y birds must go up there of an even¬ 
ing at this season, though in the off-season these 
daces are deserted. This suggests that they are 
lsed for dancing or parades in their courtships, 
he Australian lyre-birds also make those holes 
■T ones like them. 
Some one has suggested that the booming may 
>e a defiance or challenge between the males, 
v , m the case of cocks crowing; but I think 
hat owing to the thin population of kakapos 
n this dense forest, and the poor means of trav- 
hng it was necessary for either the male or 
emale to have a loud call. The voice of the 
ernaie kakapo is a horse cough, and can only 
1 heard for a couple of hundred yards, while 
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