THE SHEEP KILLER. 95 



where the helpless benumbed sheep have been literally torn 

 to pieces while alive by the relentless birds. Even when 

 men. wading waist high in the snow, climb up to dig the sheep 

 out, the brutal birds will often not leave their prey, but fall 

 victims to the musterer's alpenstock. 



Here are some accounts from eye-witnesses. 



Mr. Mcintosh, of Lake Tekapo, says:— "I saw again another 

 mob stuck in the snow, in a very rough place which we 

 shepherds could not get to. I watched from the other side of 

 the gully, and, by the aid of my glasses, saw the parrots 

 actually eating the sheep alive while they were caught in the 

 snow." 



Mr. Logan, another of my correspondents, says: — "The 

 sheep were held up by snow, and there were thirteen Keas 

 attacking them. They had some killed and others maimed 

 beyond recovery. They were sitting on the living and the dead, 

 but only one or two of the birds seemed to be attacking the 

 living." 



Mr. Hugh McKenzie writes :~" In 1884, on Lome Peak 

 Station, Wakatipu, in the month of July, there came a heavy 

 fall of snow. One morning early, myself and two other men 

 went out to look up the sheep ; at 10 a.m. we sighted a mob. 

 As we got within about a quarter of a mile of them, we could 

 make out a number of Keas flying about the sheep, making a 

 great screaming noise. We at once hastened on to the sheep, 

 which were stuck on a point of the spur about 3,000ft. in 

 altitude. At a distance of three or four hundred yards, we 

 saw two sheep floundering in the snow with a Kea perched on 

 the rump of each sheep, and at work on the loins. These sheep 

 would be distant from the mob about eighty yards, and fully 

 twenty yards from each other. As we sighted them, however, 

 notwithstanding our singing out, and hurrying up to the sheep, 

 neither Kea quitted his position until we were within twenty 

 yards of them. They, however, did not damage the sheep 

 enough to cause death, as we arrived just in time." 



The last instance is given by Mr. O'Brian : — "Three of us 

 were sent to muster the sheep off this spur, where the snow 

 was, according to our judgment, fullythree feet deep on the top 



