298 Ti-mmactions. 



them in the perpetual-snow-olad regions and among the glaciers. 

 Again, nearly all the accounts of these birds attacking sheep 

 have come from districts which are situated many miles horn 

 the regions described by many writers as the kea's home. 



At the present day however, the bird does not seem to be 

 a dweller of the glacier regions only, and, although it does often 

 frequent these heights, it is most commonly found about the 

 forest -limit. 



Dr. L. Cockayne describes, in a communication to me, its 

 habitat as follows : " I have observed the kea in various parts 

 of the Southern Alps, from the Humboldt Mountains in the 

 south to Kelly's Hill in Westland. Although frequently met 

 with on the open alpine and subalpine hillside, I consider the 

 bird essentially one of the forest-limit, where it may be seen 

 in numbers at the junction of the forest and subalpine mea- 

 dows, and in the Nothofagus forests at lower levels where such 

 are pierced by river-beds. ' 



Mr. Taylor White (V) does not consider the bird one of the 

 forest, for he says, " I remember being astonished on reading 

 of the kea living in the forest, for I never, even during the 

 severest winter, saw it perched on trees." However, in spite 

 of this, as early as 1862, Haast (I, b) saw one in a tree near 

 Lake Wanaka, and since then they have been often seen perch- 

 ing in the forest. 



I have on several occasions seen the kea both on the 

 Birdwood Range and Mou^it Torlesse, and each time the bird 

 has been about the forest-limit. Though I have often seen them 

 at an altitude of 5,000 ft., I have never seen them above that 

 height. Twice I have seen them perching in the Facjus forest — 

 once in July, 1903, in a bush behind the Glenthorne Home- 

 stead, and while camping for several days near the source of 

 ths Avoca River we continually saw them flying in and out of 

 the forest, about 500 ft. above us. 



Seeing these birds so low down in summer rather upsets 

 the statements of many writers who say that the keas only 

 come from higher altitudes in severe weather, for both times 

 when T saw the birds at low altitudes it was in midsummer, 

 and (lie iveather was warm and fine. They come much lower 

 than some people suppose. Potts (N) says that they have been 

 seen at Hororata, near the Malvern Hills, and Mr. G. Ruther- 

 ford states that nearly every year keas have been shot in the 

 Thirteen-mile Bush, which is situated near the foot of Porter's 

 Pass. 



At first I thought that perhaps the keas had learnt to live 

 at lower altitudes so as to be near the sheep, but the fact that 

 before the kea had learnt to kill sheep — namely, between 1861 



