KAISERSWERTH, a town in the Prussian Rhine province, on the right bank of the Rhine, 6 m. below Düsseldorf. Pop. (1905), 2462. It possesses a Protestant and a large old Romanesque Roman Catholic church of the 12th or 13th century, with a valuable shrine, said to contain the bones of St Suitbert, and has several benevolent institutions, of which the chief is the Diakonissen Anstalt, or training-school for Protestant sisters of charity. This institution, founded by Pastor Theodor Fliedner (1800-1864) in 1836, has more than 100 branches, some being in Asia and America; the head establishment at Kaiserswerth includes an orphanage, a lunatic asylum and a Magdalen institution. The Roman Catholic hospital occupies the former Franciscan convent. The population is engaged in silk-weaving and other small industries.
In 710 Pippin of Heristal presented the site of the town to Bishop Suitbert, who built the Benedictine monastery round which the town gradually formed. Until 1214 Kaiserswerth lay on an island, but in that year Count Adolph V. of Berg, who was besieging it, dammed up effectually one arm of the Rhine. About the beginning of the 14th century Kaiserswerth, then an imperial city, came to the archbishopric of Cologne, and afterwards to the duchy of Juliers, whence, after some vicissitudes, it finally passed into the possession of the princes of the palatinate, whose rights, long disputed by the elector of Cologne, were legally settled in 1772. In 1702 the fortress was captured by the Austrians and Prussians, and the Kaiserpfalz, whence the young emperor Henry IV. was abducted by Archbishop Anno of Cologne in 1062, was blown up.
See J. Disselhoff, Das Diaconissenmutterhaus zu Kaiserswerth (new ed., 1903; Eng. trans., 1883).
KAITHAL, or Kythal, an ancient town of British India in Karnal district, Punjab. Pop. (1901), 14,408. It is said to have been founded by the mythical hero Yudisthira, and is connected by tradition with the monkey-god Hanuman. In 1767 it fell into the hands of the Sikh chieftain, Bhai Desu Singh, whose descendants, the bhais of Kaithal, ranked among the most powerful Cis-Sutlej chiefs. Their territories lapsed to the British in 1843. There remain the fort of the bhais, and several Mahommedan tombs of the 13th century and later. There is some trade in grain, sal-ammoniac, live stock and blankets; and cotton, saltpetre, lac ornaments and toys are manufactured.
KAKAPO, the Maori name, signifying “night parrot,” and frequently adopted by English writers, of a bird, commonly called by the British in New Zealand the “ground-parrot” or “owl-parrot.” The existence of this singular form was first made known in 1843 by Ernst Dieffenbach (Travels in N. Zealand, ii. 194), from some of its tail-feathers obtained by him, and he suggested that it was one of the Cuculidae, possibly belonging to the genus Centropus, but he added that it was becoming scarce, and that no example had been seen for many years. G. R. Gray, noticing it in June 1845 (Zool. Voy. “Erebus” and “Terror,” pt. ix. p. 9), was able to say little more of it, but very soon afterwards a skin was received at the British Museum, of which, in the following September, he published a figure (Gen. Birds, pt. xvii.), naming it Strigops[1] habroptilus, and rightly placing it among the parrots, but he did not describe it technically for another eighteen months (Proc. Zool. Society, 1847, p. 61). Many specimens have now been received in Europe, so that it is represented in most museums, and several examples have reached England alive.
In habits the kakapo is almost wholly nocturnal,[2] hiding in holes (which in some instances it seems to make for itself) under the roots of trees or rocks during the day time, and only issuing forth about sunset to seek its food, which is solely vegetable in kind, and consists of the twigs, leaves, seeds and fruits of trees, grass and fern roots—some observers say mosses also. It sometimes climbs trees, but generally remains on the ground, only using its comparatively short wings to balance itself in running or to break its fall when it drops from a tree—though not always then—being apparently incapable of real flight. It thus becomes an easy prey to the marauding creatures—cats, rats and so forth—which European colonists have, by accident or design, let loose in New Zealand. Sir G. Grey says it had been, within the memory of old people, abundant in every part of that country, but (writing in 1854) was then found only in the unsettled districts.
The kakapo is about the size of a raven, of a green or brownish-green colour, thickly freckled and irregularly barred with dark brown, and dashed here and there with longitudinal stripes of light yellow. Examples are subject to much variation in colour and shade, and in some the lower parts are deeply tinged with yellow. Externally the most striking feature of the bird is its head, armed with a powerful beak that it well knows how to use, and its face clothed with hairs and elongated feathers that sufficiently resemble the physiognomy of an owl to justify the generic name bestowed upon it. Of its internal structure little has been described, and that not always correctly. Its furcula has been said (Proc. Zool. Society, 1874, p. 594) to be “lost,” whereas the clavicles, which in most birds unite to form that bone, are present, though they do not meet, while in like manner the bird has been declared (op. cit., 1867, p. 624, note) to furnish among the Carinatae “the only apparent exception to the presence of a keel” to the sternum. The keel, however, is undoubtedly there, as remarked by Blanchard (Ann. Nat. Sc., Zoologie, 4th series, vol. xi. p. 83) and A. Milne Edwards (Ois. Foss. de la France, ii. 516), and, though much reduced in size, is nearly as much developed as in the Dodo and the Ocydrome. The aborted condition of this process can hardly be regarded but in connexion with the incapacity of the bird for flight, and may very likely be the result of disuse. There can be scarcely any doubt as to the propriety of considering this genus the type of a separate family of Psittaci; but whether it stands alone or some other forms (Pezoporus or Geopsittacus, for example, which in coloration and habits present some curious analogies) should be placed with it, must await future determination. In captivity the kakapo is said to show much intelligence, as well as an affectionate and playful disposition. Unfortunately it does not seem to share the longevity characteristic of most parrots, and none that has been held in confinement appears to have long survived, while many succumb speedily.