THE SHEEP KILLER. 87 



'Sometimes the wound penetrates to the colon, when, if 

 the animal recovers, this artificial anus is formed. It may 

 be on the left, but is more frequently on the right side. 

 It has been suggested that the bird aims at the colon in 

 search of its vegetable contents, but the Kea's carnivorous 

 appetite has been too frequently noticed to necessitate any 

 such hypothesis." 



One of my correspondents gives the following account : — 

 "One solitary wether I found on the Kingston Flat, still 

 alive and standing, with a hole half-way down the right 

 flank, and about eighteen inches of the double of his small 

 gut on the ground. I afterwards saw him dead at the same 

 place." 



Often the birds seem to delight in prolonging the 

 sheep's misery, for a shepherd writes as follows: — "Along 

 with another shepherd, I was out on the ranges attending to 

 the sheep, when we heard the Keas making a great noise. On 

 looking up to where they were, we saw a sheep standing on 

 a ledge of rocks ; one Kea kept jumping on to the sheep's 

 back and pecking at him. The sheep was trying to get 

 away, but could not get off the ledge. Evidently it had 

 been chased by the Keas, and it had jumped on to the 

 ledge. The Keas were at the sheep for fully half-an-hour, 

 and we could not get near to drive them ofl^ When we 

 left, the birds were still worrying the sheep." 



Another shepherd gives the following account: — "I have 

 noticed a wounded sheep standing on steep faces, and the Keas 

 walking round and round it. The sheep would also keep 

 turning round so as to face its tormentors, butting at them 

 and trying to keep them ofi^. They would keep on until 

 the sheep would lose its footing and would fall to rise no 

 more." 



The position and attitude of the bird while on the 

 sheep's back is well described in the following : — " It was in 

 the afternoon, I was mustering in Boundary Gully, Mount 

 Cook Station, at the time, and had a mob of sheep in hand 

 and was about two chains away, when a Kea, one of several 

 that were flying around, settled on a sheep. The beast at 



