286 T/anxactions. 



resistance. I shot nineteen keas and left the mob, but on 

 looking round I found that they had killed thirty-eight wethers^ 

 most of them being quite warm and in splendid condition." 



Many more such instances could be cited, but enough has 

 been said to show the method and the results of the kea's at- 

 tack on sheep. 



The Kidney Theory. 



It has always been supposed that the kea attacked the 

 sheep for the sake of the kidneys, and the first man to dispute 

 this, so far as I know, was Mr. F. F. C. Huddleston, of Nelson 

 (M, N). Dr. Alfred Kussell Wallace, in his book entitled " Dar- 

 winism " (G), after describing the method of the kea's attack,. 

 says, " Since then it is stated that the bird actually burrows 

 into the living sheep, eating its way down to the kidneys,, 

 which form its special delicacy." From the evidence of men 

 who have seen many sheep killed and wounded by keas, this, 

 statement appears to be erroneous, and of the many corre- 

 spondents that have communicated with me only one states 

 that the bird eats the kidneys ; and later on the same writer 

 says, " I have shot many keas by the dead sheep, and they 

 vomited up fat." It appears as if, even in this instance, the 

 bird eats the fat rather than kidneys. 



Mr. T. Toms, of Richmond Station, Lake Tekapo, says,. 

 " I have not examined many sheep that have been killed by^ 

 keas, but in the ones that I have examined I have always- 

 found the same result — the fat has been torn away and the 

 kidneys left. Of course, the kidneys have been found mauled,, 

 but they were not sufficiently torn to give the impression that 

 the kea had been eating them. 



In three other accounts — namely, in those of Messrs. Donald 

 Finlayson, H. E. Cameron, and C. W. Symonds — the fat was^ 

 also eaten and the kidneys left exposed and untouched. Now,, 

 if the kidney itself was a special delicacy, as Dr. Wallace's 

 book states, the keas, I think, would have eaten the kidneys- 

 as soon as they were exposed. 



Mr. McKay, of Geraldine,had a kea which would not touch 

 sheep's kidneys. He says, " I repeatedly tried him [the keaj 

 with kidney - fat and the kidneys themselves, but he would 

 scarcely deign to put his beak into them." 



One reason why people suppose the kea to be fond of kid- 

 neys is that the keas nearly always attack the sheep on the loin 

 just near these organs, and, as they eat their way through the 

 flesh and fat, people have jumped to the conclusion that they 

 must be after the kidneys. 



