Benham. — On the Flesh-eating Propensity of the Kea. 81 



spear-grass (Aciphylla) and cabbage-tree [Cordijline], and snow- 

 gi'ass [Danthonia sp.] ". 



Several of my correspondents note the fact that keas eat 

 " roots," though they are not in agreement as to what the roots 

 are. Mr. Taylor White (8) suggests — though on what evidence 

 does not appear — that the bird feeds on " lichens which cover 

 the rocks in high mountainous regions." This, it seems to me, 

 would be a very innutritions diet, and it is little likely that, in 

 the presence of a fairly abundant choice of juicy berries and other 

 fruits, the bird would touch so poor a food. But it appears 

 from his article that there were no berry-bearing subalpine 

 :shrubs in the locality he was acquainted with. Certainly around 

 the " Hermitage," in the Mount Cook district, the subalpine 

 .«crub is abundant, and lichens would, one imagines, be the last 

 Tesort of the bird. 



Mr. McGregor writes, " I have watched a kea picking grubs 

 ■out of a dead tree, and frequently noticed them picking into the 

 earth for roots, with their beaks." But none of the above ob- 

 servers, or, so far as I can ascertain, any one else, seems to have 

 examined the crops of any of the birds in an untroubled district 

 — where, that is, the carnivorous habit has not shown itself — 

 so that it is difficult to determine with absolute certainty the 

 whole range of the normal diet of the bird. 



The Origin of the Carnivorous Habit. 



The above being its normal food, how has it come about that 

 the bird has taken to eating mutton ? Various suppositions 

 have been put forward. One of these may at once be disposed of. 

 It has been suggested that the kea mistook a sheep lying down 

 for the plants termed by settlers the " vegetable sheep " {Raoulia 

 mammillaris and /?. eximia) ! Thus Mr. (now Judge) F. R. 

 Chapman wrote some years ago (7), " It is said that the keas tear 

 them (the plants) up with their powerful beaks, and that these 

 birds learnt to eat mutton through mistaking dead sheep for 

 masses of Raoulia ^ 



Now, as a matter of fact, these large species of Raoulia do 

 not occur in the Wanaka district, nor on the Southern Alps in the 

 neighbourhood of Mount Cook. None of my correspondents, all 

 of whom know the country round Wanaka well, mention the 

 plant as providing any sort of food for the kea. I think that 

 Mr. Chapman must have been misled. Further, it is extremely 

 doubtful (see later) whether the keas devour " dead " sheep — 

 i.e., such as are found lying on the hills, that may have died of 

 " natural causes " — one, in short, that the birds have not killed 

 Ttliemselves. 



