EARLY RECORDS. 75 



Campbell. He would not credit me, and all hands on the 

 station refused to believe that the birds would do it ; so I 

 was ordered to go to another hill, called the Black Hill, and 

 Mr. Campbell came with me, and some more men, and at the 

 first mob we came to Mr. Campbell and the rest saw the 

 Keas at work." 



It seems to me to be a great pity that the early writers on 

 this question did not take the trouble to get authenticated 

 evidence ; for, if this had been done, much of the confusion 

 and uncertainty as to the Kea's real habits would have been 

 prevented. 



However, instead of obtaining the above evidence from Mr. 

 McDonald, which would, at least, have recorded the names 

 of two men who had actually seen the Kea killing sheep, 

 most early writers make use of an indefinite extract which 

 appeared in the " Otago Daily Times," an extract which, 

 though correct in itself, was not at all conclusive. It runs as 

 follows : — 



"For the last three years the sheep belonging to a settler, 

 Mr Henry Campbell, in the Wanaka district (Otago), 

 appeared affected with what was thought to be a new kind of 

 disease ; neighbours and shepherds were equally unable to 

 account for it, not having seen anything of the kind before. 

 The first appearance of this supposed disease is a patch of 

 raw flesh on the loin of the sheep, about the size of a man's 

 hand ; from this, matter continually runs down the side, 

 taking the wool completely off the part it touches ; and in 

 many cases death is the result. At last a shepherd noticed 

 one of the mountain parrots sticking to a sheep, picking 

 at the sore, and the animal seemed unable to get rid 

 of its tormentor. The runholder gave directions to keep 

 watch on the parrots when mustering on the high ground ; 

 the result has been that, during the present season, when 

 mustering high up on the ranges near the sky-line, they saw 

 several of the birds surrounding a sheep, which was freshly 

 bleeding from a small wound over the loin ; on other sheep 

 were noticed places where the Kea had begun to attack them, 

 small pieces of wool having been picked out." 



