Re: del Hoyo's avian volumes

[Dino Guy Ralph <dinoguyralph@earthlink.net>]

David Marjanovic wrote:

> From: "Williams, Tim" <TiJaWi@agron.iastate.edu>
> > For example, DA features the
> > semi-flightless New Zealand kakapo as an analog for incipient aerial
> > behavior in the ancestors of birds.
>
> Semi-flightless? Everywhere I've seen it says the kakapo is totally
> flightless?
> Considering that the kakapo has lost (or is reducing???) flight, instead of
> increasing its use, why would that be an analog for _incipient_ aerial
> behavior? (Probably a rather dumb question, as I won't be able to read DA
> before July.)

The kakapo is a large flightless parrot.  I think Tim is confusing it with New
Zealand's kokako, sometimes called the wattled 'crow.'  David Attenborough's
"The Life of Birds" documentary shows them scampering and hopping from branch
to branch high up in a tree.

------Ralph W. Miller III
         ralph.miller@alumni.usc.edu

"You say kakapo, I say kokako.
 Kakapo, kokako, kokako, kakapo --
 Let's call the whole thing off!"

It wouldn't be the first time these names got mixed up by non-kiwis on this
list.