104 THE KEA. 



It is said that, in the early days, miners prospecting for 

 gold often killed a sheep for food, and, roughly skinning it, 

 would leave the skin and much offal on the ground, thus 

 giving the Kea ample opportunity to get the taste for 

 meat. 



Once having acquired the carnivorous taste, it would 

 soon find out that the dead sheep lying about the station 

 contained the same kind of food, and that by tearing off the 

 wool a good meal was always to be had. Tearing at the 

 half-dead sheep, buried in the snow, would be its next step 

 on the downward course ; and, finding a lack of dead sheep* 

 it would soon begin to attempt to eat the animal while it 

 was running about. The wounds thus caused would soon 

 mortify and cause the animal's death, and so the Kea would 

 find an ever accessible method of acquiring a meal. 



Some early writers suggest that, as the bird formerly fed 

 on insect larvae, the finding of a dead sheep in an advanced 

 stage of decomposition gave them the taste for meat. In 

 this way, the carcases being often full of maggots from the 

 eggs of the ever-present blow-fly, as the Kea picked out the 

 maggots it would at the same time eat pieces of meat and 

 so acquire the taste for flesh. 



This may in some measure have influenced the bird ; at 

 any rate, it would largely account for some Keas being fond 

 of bad meat. 



The following information, forwarded by Mr. James 

 McDonald, adds weight to the hunger theory, especially as 

 the killing first began on the station of which he speaks. 



In a letter to me he says : — " 1 would like to say one 

 thing in answer to the question why the Wanaka Station 

 suffered first by the Kea. My opinion is that it was because 

 this station was the first to send men out to the out-huts in 

 winter where they had to kill their own mutton. The skin 

 was hung up on a fence or a bush, and the birds, driven 

 to lower levels by the heavy snow which covered everything, 

 came down in numbers to pick at the skins and entrails. 

 When deprived of this they began to kill sheep for themselves. 



