White.— On the Kea. 273 



I feel certain that the record of killing different taniwhas, 

 each one with its own particular name or verbal definition, 

 is founded on actual fact, and so far is historically true, but 

 that, owing to the Maori having no written records of the past, 

 but of necessity having to repeat each story from father to 

 son by word of mouth, and the original standard or model of 

 the creature spoken of having thereby become obscured or 

 lost sight of, — having long ceased to exist, — the present 

 ridiculous and mythical monsters have been evolved — 

 creatures made, added to, and embellished by each succeeding 

 narrator, till nothing of truth remains but the name of the 

 doer of the deed, or the chief director, and the name of the 

 place where the deed was accomplished. 



Art. XXX. — The Kea (Nestor notabilis), a Shcep-eatiny 



Parrot. 



By Taylor White. 



[Read before the Haivke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 8th October, 1894.] 



I have been prompted to write this paper on receipt of a 

 letter from Mr. Alfred E. Wallace, F.R.S., who still holds to 

 the old-time stories given of this bird long ago, and follows the 

 lead of those who had but a second-hand knowledge of this 

 bird, and so falls into errors, such as its leaving the berries 

 of the forest-trees and taking to picking the kidney-fat out of 

 live sheep running on the mountain-side, and being gradually 

 trained thereto by commencing to sample the carcases of 

 sheep hanging on the gallows or slaughter-place of the sheep- 

 farmer. I am merely quoting from memory, and so am liable 

 to vary the exact words. But I remember being astonished 

 on reading of the kea living in the forest, for I never even 

 during the severest .winters saw it perched on a tree, and, 

 further, the small patches of trees in the alpine valleys are all 

 of one kind, a species of Fagus, which were called by the 

 settlers black-birch. The fruit or "beach mast" of these 

 trees is very minute and rare, and of little, if any, service to 

 the birds of other species. 



I have during hard winters tamed the kaka (Nestor 

 meridionalis), which in a starved condition might settle on 

 the house, when I would approach with a piece of raw meat 

 on ths point of a long stick, like a fishing-rod, but never a kea ; 

 and the only birds I remember picking at the carcases of sheep 

 on the gallows were flocks of the newly-arrived bird, the small 

 18 



