274 Transactions. 



In 1894 Mr. Taylor White (V) accused the bird, but yet does 

 not seem to have been an eye-witness, but bases his conclusions 

 on hearsay, for he says, " One day my brother John came home 

 and said that he knew what caused the holes in the back of 

 the sheep : it was done by the kea. This surprised me greatly, 

 but I soon afterwards had evidence of the fact myself, for 

 when some of these birds had once found out that blood of the 

 sheep was good for food, others were initiated into the perform- 

 ance." what Mr. White and his brother saw is not stated, 

 and I think that if a kea had been seen attacking a sheep it 

 would be almost certain to have been mentioned in the paper. 

 1 have since had a letter from Mr. Taylor White stating that 

 he has never seen a kea kill a sheep. 



In February, 1906, at a meeting of runholders held at 

 Culverden, some strong remarks were made about the loss of 

 sheep caused by the kea, and the Wellington Philosophical 

 Society was ridiculed for upholding the statement that at the 

 present time the recorded evidence against the kea was not 

 sufficient to condemn it. However, in spite of all their talk, 

 only one speaker was reported to have seen the kea attacking 

 sheep. The rest all spoke from hearsay ; and I have since re- 

 ceived a letter fi'om the reported eye-witness, stating that the 

 newspaper had misrepresented his remarks, for he had never 

 said any such thing at the meeting. This meeting was the 

 means of leading many people to believe in the kea's guilt, 

 and yet, when the evidence was sifted, not one man saw the 

 kea do it. 



This is the pith of the recorded evidence up to the end of 

 1905, and not one -ftTiter brought forward a reliable instance 

 where a sheep had been seen to be attacked and killed by the kea. 



The strongest evidence against the bird was the circum- 

 stantial, which may be classed as follows : — 



1. Against the Kea. 



(a.) The account of the Wanaka shepheids. 



(b.) Only where keas were known to live were the sheep- 

 wounded after the kea's method, and that where 

 they were unknown no instance of this special kind 

 of sheep-killing had been seen. 



(c.) If sheep had been killed, and the birds in that place 

 were shot, the killing at that spot ceased. 



{(l.) Keas had been seen to fly off the bodies of sheep, and 

 wool and fat had been found in their crops. 



(e.) Some keas in captivity would eat meat, fat, skins, &c. 



This evidence may be sufficient to satisfy the general public,, 

 but it is inadequate to prove it conclusively as a scientific fact. 



