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Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 233, 23 June 1915, Page 3

Mr R. E. Clouston, of Rockville, near Collingwood, Nelson, in a letter to a friend in Christchurch, states that he has discovered a very large colony of kakapos, which weire believed to be extinct many years ago. The discovery was made on Gouland Downs a wild and almost inaccessible tract of country, which was recently declared a sanctuary under the Animals Protection Act. The kakapo is one of the most remarkable parrots in the wojrld. It lias dull plumage, mostly green, varied with brown, and is large, heavy, and flightless, but its wings are used in running, and as a means of balancing the bird on trees, which it climbs with its bill and feet. It is a night bird, and spends most of the day in holes or burrows in the ground, and sometimes under roots of trees. The kakapo is one of the New Zealand •birds figured in th. 3 Hon. W.Rothchild's work on "Extinct Birds," which cost £20.000 to produce, and ornithologists in all parts of the world will be interested, in th 0 announcement that, so far from being extinct, the kakapo is fairly plentiful in places where it Uvea tinder shield of th e law. Mr Clouston who made the discovery, was instrumental in having the Gouland Downs declared a sanctuary.