Makhiner. — On the Natural History of tlie Kca. 301 



in January, 1906, at the head of the Waihopai River, at a place 

 known as the Glazebrook AVTiare, Jiear the Blue Mountains, 

 Hellersden Station, farther north still, he saw a kea again. It 

 was about 8 o'clock in the evening, and therefore almost im- 

 possible to see it, but as the bird gave its peculiar cry there 

 seems little doubt that it was a kea. One had been seen near 

 that spot in 1905, but never before. The only other report 

 of its appearance in Marlborough is from Mr. F. R. O'Brian, 

 who states that he has seen one only thirty miles from Blen- 

 heim. 



They appear to extend westward almost, if not quite, to the/ 

 coast-line. They have been seen at Koiterangi, near Hokitika ; 

 at Mahitahi, near Bruce Bay ; and Captain Bollons informed 

 me that in June, 1906, he saw one flying along the beach at 

 Bruce Bay itself. It has also been found in several other parts 

 of Westland, for in his report on the survey of Westland Dr. 

 Bell (W) states that it was common on the mountains, and 

 especially around Browning Pass. They may almost be around 

 the sounds of western Otago and Southland, but at present I 

 can find no records of their presence there. 



The area of the kea's distribution is therefore confined to the 

 mountainous country of the South Island of New Zealand, 

 from Southland in the south to Tasman Bay in the north, 

 from the coast-line in the west to the limit of the high coun- 

 try in the east. It is about four hundred miles in leiigth, and 

 about one hundred miles in breadth at its widest part. 



The Northward Migration. 



It has often been stated by early and present - day writers 

 that since its discovery in Southland the kea has gradually 

 migrated northward, through Otago, Canterbury, and Nelsrn. 

 This idea has been freely quoted as if it were a scientifically 

 proved fact, but from what I can see there is very little evi- 

 dence at present on record to support it. The records seem to 

 indicate very forcibly that whenever and wherever men have 

 explored the mountainous country from Southland to North 

 Canterbury we have at once records of the kea being found 

 in the parts explored. It is only because the mountainous 

 country in Otago was explored first, and then the northern 

 portions of the Island later, that people have been led to think 

 that the keas are spreading northward. Very likely if Dr. 

 Haast (I) had explored Arthur's Pass or Browning's Pass beft re 

 1856, people would have thought that the kea had spread frem 

 Canterbury southward. 



Even if we take the records of the kea's discovery, they 

 do not support the northern - migration theory. In 1856 Dr» 



