274 The Kea, or New Zealand Parrot. [Sess. 



My curiosity was first aroused in regard to this bird last 

 year, when calling for Mr Davidson, the manager of the New 

 Zealand Land Company in this city, and from whom I heard 

 of the destructive habits of the bird among the sheep stock in 

 the island. It was at Mr Davidson's request that I undertook 

 the task, a few years ago, of collecting and transporting stoats 

 and weasels to New Zealand in order to cope with the rabbit 

 pest there. 



Like the heron and short-eared owl in this country, the kea 

 {Nestor notabilis) appears to hunt for its prey either by day or 

 by night. Before the advent of sheep to New Zealand it fed 

 on insects, larvae, seeds of alpine plants, berries, &c. It was, 

 I am informed, extremely interesting to watch its habits, 

 using its bill like a pick-axe when unearthing its food. It has 

 an ungainly hopping waddle when on the ground, but it is 

 exceedingly dexterous among branches, and, like other parrots, 

 uses its bill to assist locomotion. It has no enemies but man, 

 and, like many birds in this country, its life is a happy one so 

 long as the weather continues fine and natural food is abundant. 

 When, however, a severe winter sets in, accompanied by a 

 heavy fall of snow, this bird of the mountains descends to the 

 plains, and even there, like most of the feathered tribe, it has 

 a difficulty in procuring its food -supplies. This is now 

 aggravated by the sheep -graziers burning the old pasturage in 

 order that it may spring afresh, thus destroying the larvae of 

 insects, and many of those shrubs which require some years' 

 growth before they again produce berries, and which neces- 

 sarily limits the food-supplies of the kea. 



During the mice plague on the Border pasture-lands, rooks 

 in that district became exclusively carnivorous, and preyed 

 upon the rodents. In like manner the kea adapts itself to 

 the exigencies of its circumstances, and becomes carnivorous, 

 preying upon animals of no less importance than sheep. A 

 popular idea prevails that in an exceptionally hard winter 

 a kea, in its struggle to obtain a scanty subsistence, had been 

 attracted to the slaughter-house of a farmyard. Noticing 

 sheep-skins hanging about, it had begun to pick bits of fat 

 which adhered to them, as is the habit of tits and other small 

 birds in this country. Finding this food congenial to its 

 taste, it next attacked the carcasses hanging to cool in the 



