300 T ran motions. 



their being nortli of this limit, the former at Arthur's Past? 

 and the latter at Grassmere, Lochinvar, and Hurunui, it shows 

 that this statement Avas too limited. 



In 1888 Mr. W. W. Smith (U) says, " When Sir W. BiiUer 

 published his last paper on the kea five years ago he gave the 

 ranges on the upper reaches of the Rakaia River as its extreme 

 northern limit. During the last three winters it has visited 

 the ranges above the Otira Gorge, thus showing its range ta 

 be extending north." Mr. Smith, like Sir W. Buller, had evi- 

 dently not seen the reports of Haast (I, d), who saw it on Arthur's 

 Pass twenty-three years before ; and 1 think that the record of 

 Mr. A. Blakely, who shot one there in 1881, as well as the report 

 of Mr. Potts that it was known at Hurunui as early as 1882,^ 

 shows that the kea's northern limit was very much beyond 

 the line stated by Mr. Smith. 



Mr George Rutherford states that in 1885 it was known 

 at Benmore Run, near Porter's Pass, West Coast Road, and 

 Mr. Bond (Q) reports that it was seen on the Mount Algidas. 

 Station about that time. 



For some years the stations around Hanmer seemed to be 

 its northern limit, but in 1903 Mr. Edward Kidson, Christ- 

 ehurch, in compau}' with Messrs. F. G. Gibbs and H. M. Bryant, 

 Brightwater, Nelson, saw one at close quarters on Mount 

 Robert, near Lake Rotoiti, about forty miles south of the City 

 of Nelson. Mr. H. M. Bryant, who has done a fair amount of 

 mountaineering in the Nelson Province, sa3's that he had never 

 seen one before, and the late owner of the station at Mount 

 Robert told him that it was the first time that a kea had been 

 seen on his station. 



Through the kindness of Mr. R. Kidson I am able to record 

 two other instances in the Nelson Province. In 1904 a kea 

 was caught by Mr. A. G. Hammond at Appleby, thirteen miles 

 south-west of the City of Nelson ; and in the same year Mr. S. T. 

 Rowling caught one at Riwaka, a few miles north of Motueka. 

 This is at present the most northern limit where a kea has been 

 found, and the distance between its southern and northern 

 limit is only about four hundred miles. 



Through the kindness of Mr. T. E. Currie, Christchurch, 

 I have been able to obtain some reports of its presence in the 

 Marlborough Province, where it has been almost unknown. 

 In May, 1906, on the Tarndale Station, at a place haif-wa\ up 

 the Saxton River, some miles north of the homestead, one 

 afternoon about 4 o'clock, Mr. Currie, with eleven other men, 

 saw a kea flying across. As it passed over it gave the well- 

 known kea cry. Though these birds are fairly common around 

 the homestead, they had rarely been seen so far north. .Again, 



