42 THE HUMAN SIDE OF BIRDS 



after mountain range, with apparently no thought 

 of the valley far below. 



This glorious bird is king of the mountains, the 

 true lord of the high places of the world. He lives 

 in a region of pure air and blinding sunlight, and 

 evidently looks upon men as helpless crawling 

 things fit only to live in valleys. Round his earliest 

 cradle bright snowflakes glisten like diamonds in 

 the sunbeams which, early and late, colour the sur- 

 rounding hills with rich blues and purples. He 

 makes his home between rugged crags, with the 

 shiny glacier as his private skating pond. He is an 

 integrant part of the cliffs and precipices — a com- 

 plement of the eternal snows. Wherever the hand 

 of God had heaped together mighty masses of rocks 

 and piled them toward the skies, wherever the snow 

 spreads its white mantle and sends icy streamlets 

 trickling toward the valleys, there will this police- 

 man of the skies be found. He claims every moun- 

 tain as his natural birthright. 



One of the most terrible and vindictive of the 

 bird warriors is the kea parrot of New Zealand. 

 This bird, formerly a patrolman of nature in keep- 

 ing down insects, has become a veritable despot. 

 Living among the foothills and mountain peaks, 

 it used to descend to the lowlands in winter, to 

 obtain food. But the introduction of the sheep- 



