Owl Parrot, a singular bird of the cockatoo family, of the genus strigops (Gray), found in New Zealand. In the only species described (V. habroptilwt, Gray), the bill is high and short, grooved on the sides, with much curved culmen, acute tip, dentated lateral margins, and base covered by hair-like feathers; the wings are short and rounded, the fifth and sixth quills equal and longest; tail moderate, weak, much rounded, and each feather pointed with the owosso shaft projecting; tarsi short and robust, covered with rounded scales; claws long, strong, and slightly curved. This is the Kakapo or night parrot of the natives; it is about 21/3 ft. in length, of a dirty green color, with black transverse bands and brownish and yellowish spots; bill yellowish white. It has the general form of a parrot, with the facial expression, nocturnal habits, and noiseless flight of the owls; it lives in holes which it digs in the ground at the roots of trees; it is solitary, rarely seen, preferring moist and dark woods, and keeps chiefly on the ground, where its tracks are said to resemble those made by the human foot; its food consists of the roots of ferns and the outer covering of the New Zealand flax (phormium tenax); it breeds in February, laying two or three eggs; the voice is a hoarse croak.

According to the natives, these birds assemble in the winter in caves in large numbers, dispersing again in the spring with a great noise; their flesh is white and is considered good eating. For an account of its habits see "Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London" (1852).

Owl Parrot (Strigops habroptilus).