. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. ^.iri' â ^\>r THE OWL PARROT [Stririops.* habroptilm^). The genus Strigops is the sole representative of the fifth sub-family, the Strigopince. It is one of the most remarkable of all the Parrots, and is met with only in New Zealand. The face shows a disc exactly as in the Owls, whence the name, and the wing is very short, convex, and rounded. In its habits this bird is chiefly nocturnal, but not entirely so; the most remarkable fact connected with it being, jierhaps, its unwillingness to fly. Thus Dr. Buller, , i
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. ^.iri' â ^\>r THE OWL PARROT [Stririops.* habroptilm^). The genus Strigops is the sole representative of the fifth sub-family, the Strigopince. It is one of the most remarkable of all the Parrots, and is met with only in New Zealand. The face shows a disc exactly as in the Owls, whence the name, and the wing is very short, convex, and rounded. In its habits this bird is chiefly nocturnal, but not entirely so; the most remarkable fact connected with it being, jierhaps, its unwillingness to fly. Thus Dr. Buller, , in his excellent work on the " Birds of New Zealand," writes :â" All who have studied the bird in its natural state agree on this point, that the wings, although sufficiently large and strong, are perfectly useless for purposes of flight, and that the bird merely spreads them to bi-eak the force of its fall in descending from a higher point to a lower, when sviddenly surprised; in some instances even this use of them is neglected, the bird falling to the ground like a stone. We are naturally led to ask how it is that a bird possessing large and well formed wings should be found utterly incapable of flight. On removing the skin from the body it is seen that the muscles by means of which the movements of these anterior limbs are regulated are very well developed, but are largely overlaid with fat. The bird is known to be a ground-feeder, with a voracious appetite, and to chiefly on vegetable mosses, which, possessing but little nutriment, require to be eaten in large quantities; and Dr. Hawst informs us that he has sometimes seen them with their crops so distended and heavy, ihat the birds were .scarcely able to move. These mosses cover the ground and the roots or trunks of prostrate trees, requiring to be sought for on foot; and the bird's habit of feeding at night, in a country where there are no indigenous predatory quadrupeds, would render flight a su
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