NESTING. 59 



Mr. C. V. Rides, of the Acclimatisation Gardens, 

 Christchurch, in a letter to me on the native birds, says 

 that when kept in captivity they change their character 

 to a large extent, and the wild duck, whose natural food is 

 largely young green shoots and herbs and any small fresh- 

 water animals available, prefers cakes and buns to the usual 

 wheat and maize. 



If birds, as in the cases cited, take readily to new food, 

 it seems to me that the mere fact that the young Keas will 

 eat meat does not in any way prove that the taste has 

 become hereditary. 



