[1] Though Okba founded his city in a desert place, excavations
undertaken in 1908 revealed the existence of Roman ruins, including a
temple of Saturn, in the neighbourhood.
KAISERSLAUTERN, a town in the Bavarian palatinate, on the Waldlauter, in
the hilly district of Westrich, 41 m. by rail W. of Mannheim. Pop.
(1905), 52,306. Among its educational institutions are a gymnasium, a
Protestant normal school, a commercial school and an industrial museum.
The house of correction occupies the site of Frederick Barbarossa's
castle, which was demolished by the French in 1713. Kaiserslautern is
one of the most important industrial towns in the palatinate. Its
industries include cotton and wool spinning and weaving, iron-founding,
and the manufacture of beer, tobacco, gloves, boots, furniture, &c.
There is some trade in fruit and in timber.
Kaiserslautern takes its name from the emperor (Kaiser) Frederick I.,
who built a castle here about 1152, although it appears to have been a
royal residence in Carolingian times. It became an imperial city, a
dignity which it retained until 1357, when it passed to the palatinate.
In 1621 it was taken by the Spanish, in 1631 by the Swedish, in 1635 by
the imperial and in 1713 by the French troops. During 1793 and 1794 it
was the scene of fighting; and in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 it was
the base of operations of the second German army, under Prince Frederick
Charles. It was one of the early stations of the Reformation, and in
1849 was the centre of the revolutionary spirit in the palatinate.
See Lehmann, _Urkundliche Geschichte von Kaiserslautern_
(Kaiserslautern, 1853), and E. Jost, _Geschichte der Stadt
Kaiserslautern_ (Kaiserslautern, 1886).
KAISERSWERTH, a town in the Prussian Rhine province, on the right bank
of the Rhine, 6 m. below Dusseldorf. 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.
For further details see Gould's _Birds of Australia_ (ii. 247), and
_Handbook_ (ii. 539); Dr Finsch's _Die Papageien_ (i. 241), and Sir
Walter Buller's _Birds of New Zealand_ especially. (A. N.)