White.— On the Kea. 279 



a false anus." (An instance of a wound healing as de- 

 scribed I have witnessed myself — an opening in the flank. 

 — T. W.) 



" Besides grubs, as the weta (Deinacrida) and the Cicada, 

 they feed on the berries of various alpine shrubs and trees 

 [? T. W.] , such as the snowberry (Gaultheria), Coprosma, 

 Panax, and the little black seed in a white skin of the Phyllo- 

 cladus alpinus ; the Pittosporum, with its hard seed in a 

 glutinous mass like birdlime ; and the red berry of the Podo- 

 carpus ; also, in winter, on the roots of the various herbaceous 

 alpine plants — Aciphylla squarrosa and colensoi, Ranunculus 

 lyallii, Cehnisias, &c. 



" About Mount Cook they breed very early in the year, as 

 I have found their nests in August, when snow was on the 

 ground. The first time that I saw nests at that time of the 

 year was when I was shooting, at an altitude of 3,000ft. I 

 shot a bird that was sitting on a rock. After it fell another 

 appeared on the rock, and from the same place I shot twenty- 

 two. I went to pick up the dead birds, and then found that 

 they had, in the first place, all come out of a hole under the 

 rock. On looking into the hole I saw something moviug, 

 which eventually turned out to be young birds. They were 

 out of reach, but after some trouble I managed to noose one, 

 and found that it was in its nesting plumage of slate-coloured 

 down, with very yellow beak and legs. There were others 

 in different stages of growth, also eggs. I have since found 

 other nests, and have noticed that after a time the old birds 

 leave the half-grown ones to hatch out the late eggs, all the 

 community doing their share of feeding the young. The same 

 habit I have noticed in the native parrakeet. The kea's egg 

 is white, and about the size of a pigeon's, but rounder, and 

 with a rough shell. The young birds do not come out of the 

 nest until fully fledged and able to fly. The young birds are 

 so tame that if a person comes across a flock of them and 

 keeps perfectly still they will walk up to him and pull his 

 clothes. 



" I am unable to give a correct estimate of the number 

 killed in the Mount Cook and Lake Wakatipu districts. The 

 slaughter of them at times has been very great. At Lake 

 Wanaka, in four years, I myself killed over three thousand, 

 and I know of several up-country stations where one to two 

 hundred were killed yearly. To reduce their numbers the 

 County Councils used to give from Is. to 2s. per beak, and 

 the Government then gave the Councils a subsidy of pound 

 for pound. This has now been discontinued, and so gives a 

 chance of increase." 4 



* "New Zealand Journal of Science," September, 1891. 



