2. Stringops habroptilus, Gray. (Kakapo.)

I have described in "The Birds of New Zealand" (vol. i., pp. 177-78) several remarkable varieties of this bird, the tendency generally being towards a more or less yellow plumage. The bird exhibited this evening is no exception to that rule. It is paler-coloured than any specimen I have hitherto seen, the entire under-surface being dull lemon-yellow clouded with obscure green and brown, the upper parts much suffused with yellow, the tail-feathers clear lemon-yellow with black shafts and obscurely barred and toothed with brown, the primaries lemon-yellow and the secondaries greenish-yellow, with similar blackish-brown markings to those of the ordinary bird.