76 Tra7isactions. 



Canterbury, met in conference at Culverclen and decided to 

 petition the Government to increase the bonus on kea-beaks. 



In the Otago Daily Times for the 16th February, 1906, we 

 read that " the keas have been very numerous in the moun- 

 tainous parts of Amuri County during the last two years. They 

 have descended on the Amuri highlands from the mountains, 

 and several landowners stated that the losses of sheep attributed 

 to these birds had increased from about 7i to 8 per cent, last 

 year to 15 per cent, this year. Musterers brought reports of 

 having seen sheep killed by keas," &e., &c. — a repetition of the 

 course of events well known in Otago. While from the same 

 newspaper for the 22nd March, 1906, one learns that on the 

 West Coast, too, the kea is at work : " At Mahitahi, Bruce Bay, 

 in South W^estland, Mr. T. Condon lost last year 150 sheep, 

 which he believed to have been killed by keas. He had seen 



the bird at work on the sheep There has been 



no complaint of the birds attacking the settlers' flocks in the 

 more northern sections of the Coast — -as, for instance, round 

 the Franz Josef Glacier." 



But even within the limit of distribution of the kea many 

 stations seem to be free from its attacks. Thus, Buller(13) 

 quotes H. Campbell as stating that, in 1868, when he was suf- 

 fering from the attacks at Wanaka, the keas were not attacking 

 the sheep at another station o\vned by him, some thirty miles 

 away, " at the same altitude (4,000 ft. to 5,000 ft.), in the same 

 district, and where the birds are plentiful " ; and my own in- 

 quiries quite bear out this evidence of the sporadic distribution 

 of the habit. 



Is EVERY Kea carnivorous ? 



I put this question to my correspondents, and the replies 

 render it impossible to give a definite answer : for whereas 

 Messrs. Bell, Cameron, Ford, and Holmes believe that every 

 kea in a district indulges in the habit— as " the old birds teach 

 the younger directly they are fledged," ^\Tites Ford — there are 

 some of my informants who take the opposite view, that " only 

 the more daring birds " attack sheep (McGregor) ; that " the 

 habit is peculiar to individual keas in a flock " (McKenzie) ; 

 and this view is held by Mr. Green of the " Hermitage," Southern 

 Alps ; and I am inclined to share the latter opinion, for if ever)" 

 kea in the district were to become carnivorous the loss to sheep- 

 owners would be much greater than it is. 



There are many stations, as I have stated, in the area oc- 

 cupied by the kea whose owners have apparently no fault to 

 find with the bird, and even in those districts where they are 

 most troublesome it is probably only certain birds that are 



