THE KEA 145 



acquired of attacking sheep and eating the kidney-fat. Alighting 

 on the back of a sheep, the bird digs its beak through the skin 

 and flesh until it secures the morsel, and makes its cruel repast. 

 Very startling figures, showing the destruction caused by these 

 birds, have been published. Although some of the statements 

 seem to be exaggerated, there is no doubt that the settlers' flocks 

 have suffered heavily. It is recorded in the reports of the Lands 

 Department that, on a station at Lake Wanaka, 200 sheep were 

 killed in one night ; while on runs far back and at high altitudes, 

 20 per cent, of the flocks have succumbed to the birds' ravages. 

 The local governing bodies and the Government still pay for 

 keas' heads, the County Council in some instances giving 2s. 6d. 

 each, and the Government granting a subsidy of 6d. a head. 

 Besides this, some settlers have offered as much as 10s. a head. 

 This system of outlawry has considerably thinned the numbers 

 of the keas. Some settlers slay their hundreds, others their 

 thousands. At present, in 1908, these birds seem to be advancing 

 northwards, as they are more numerous in Canterbury, and less 

 numerous in the southern districts of Otago and Southland, than 

 formerly. 



The kea's peculiar method of covering the ground has been 

 noted. It goes along with rather a hopping jump than a walk, 

 which gives its gait an odd appearance. For a nesting place, it 

 seeks the shelter of almost inaccessible rocks, or burrows in a hole 

 in the steep facings. It breeds very early. Its egg is larger than 

 that of the kaka, and rougher, and the surface is granulated with 

 pits dotted over, Avhile there are a very few slight chalky 

 incrustations towards the smaller end. The shell is very stout 

 and thick. The egg is ovoid in form. 



One of ]Mr. Potts 's best chapters in Out in the Open deals with 

 this bird and its quaint habits. He says: "It breeds in the deep 

 crevices and fissures which cleave and seam the sheer facings 

 of almost perpendicular cliffs that in places bound, as with 

 massive ramparts, the higher mountain spurs. Sometimes, but 

 rarely, the agile musterer, clambering amongst these rocky fast- 

 nesses, has found the entrance to the 'run' used by the breeding 

 pair, and has peered with curious glance, tracing the worn track 



