THE SHEEP KILLER. 93 



bottom of the gully was reached. When I went to- 

 investigate, T found the sheep not quite dead, but bleating 

 with evident pain, it would appear on account of a hole in 

 its back close up to the shoulder." 



Mr. H. Heckler, of Lumsden, writes: — "I was keeping 

 boundary at the Gladstone Gorge after snow muster, and was 

 gathering the stragglers off the high country, when I came 

 across about twenty Keas. Two of them were on a sheep's back, 

 the balance were flying round him (a stray wether), making a 

 terrible noise. The sheep was going at full speed down the 

 spur. I watched him where he ran to, and followed him 

 down for about three miles. When I got down the sheep was 

 dead, with two holes (one on each side of the backbone) in 

 him, and most of the mob of Keas were picking out the 

 kidney fat. I crawled to the rock where the poor sheep was 

 lying, and the Keas were so busy that I killed three with my 

 stick." 



Mr. Andrew Watherston, writing to me of his experiences 

 in 1904, says: — "I was looking out a mob of wethers, and found 

 that the Keas had been killing them and there were eight 

 dead. As it came on a dense fog I had to return to my hut. 

 Early on the following morning I went out to the wethers. 

 again. Arriving where the sheep were camped sometime before 

 sunrise, I could hear the Keas calling, and following up the 

 sound I got to where there were about forty of them. They 

 had about there or four hundred wethers rounded up. The 

 sheep were huddled close together, and the Keas were flying 

 over them, and alighting on their backs. When the Keas. 

 started to pick the back of a sheep, it would start to run 

 round and round the mob ; the Kea would rise, but as soon 

 as the sheep stopped the bird was on its back again. This 

 continued for a little time ; the sheep, apparently getting 

 sulky, lay down with its neck stretched out and its lower 

 jaw resting flat on the ground, when it showed no further 

 resistance but allowed the Kea to pick away at its back. I 

 never knew a sheep, after it once sulked, to show any 

 further resistance. I shot nineteen Keas and left the mob, 

 but, on looking round, I found that they had killed 



