B8 Transactions. 



then went down and drove away the birds and examined the 

 sheep, which had the wool and flesh torn by the birds in the 

 same spot as that previously noticed by the shearers. This 

 solved the mystery, and when I related the story to the station- 

 manager and fellow-workers they were gi'eatly sm-prised to learn 



that the kea was the culprit 



" I am convinced that the chief reason why the bird attacks 

 the sheep in that particular spot is because it is the only place 

 that it can perch for any length of time without the sheep put- 

 ting it oif." [He does not believe in the keas seeking after the 

 kidney-fat.] 



4. Mr. Alexander Fraser. 



" Nelson, 2nd August, 1905. 

 " In reply to youi's of the 22nd ultimo, I was engaged sheep- 

 farming in the Hawea and Wanaka Lake district between 1871 

 and 1883. Suspicion arose in the first-named period that keas 

 were attacking sheep, suggestion being that they learnt it from 

 picking at sheep-skins and carcases hung on gallows. I lost 

 some thousands of sheep from keas. I have seen the kea attack- 

 ing the sheep, and also eating into a sheep when the latter was 

 stuck in deep snow. I have opened scores of keas' crops and 

 found wool and meat therein. I have laid poison in dead sheep 

 in snow, gone back later and found dead keas ; also have often 

 poisoned keas with mutton suet [poisoned, I presume]. The 

 natural food originally of the kea w^as berries, and grubs and 

 insects it dug out of the ground. The burning of the alpine 

 country probably diminished its natural food. They breed in- 

 side broken rock. Never found a nest. Keas. are very numerous 

 between the above dates, though shot and poisoned by the 

 thousand." 



5. Mr. John King. 



" Pembroke, 22nd July, 1905. 

 [Part of this letter has already been quoted above, and many 

 of the facts contained in it are incorporated in the general 

 account. It continues :] " I have seen sheep snowed up on the 

 ranges, and on one occasion I counted twelve dead out of about 

 fifty, and numbers of keas sitting about on the rocks gorged, 

 very much after the manner of vultures. On another occasion 

 I was wdth Mr. Campbell and some of his shepherds who had a 

 large mob of sheep in front of them taking them across som^ 

 hilly country, when we noticed two keas hovering over the sheep. 

 Presently one swooped down on a sheep not 30 yards from where 

 we were. This sheep immediately left the others and rushed 

 past me. I was carrying a gun at the time, and shot the bird 



