CHAPTER X. 



TIME OF ATTACK. 



Oh ! the dew of darkliug moruings ou the 

 grasses green and g'rey ! 

 Oh ! the flush before the satt'rou, and the 

 blushes of the snow ! 

 Dark latas stalking down the gorge (a-waitiug 

 for the day) 

 To the sheen of rippling waters in the 

 shingle sweep below. 



— M. C. Keane. 



Winter and early spring are the periods of the year 

 when the Keas are most aggressive in their attacks on sheep, 

 and this fact seems to intimate that the lack of ordinary 

 food does much to instigate the attacks, for a heavy winter 

 generally means a heavy loss of sheep, apart from accidental 

 losses. 



This season in the Kea country is usually a very severe 

 one, so much so that some of the other birds make for the 

 plains until the warmer weather returns. 



Owing to the high altitude, the cold becomes so intense 

 that the ground is frozen hard for long periods, especially 

 on the shady side of the mountains. These parts for many 

 weeks or even months are as hard as iron, the birds being 

 thus prevented from obtaining the insect larvse which may 

 be concealed under the ground. The Keas must find it very 

 difficult, in severe seasons, to obtain much vegetable food ; 

 and this very probably, as we have seen, drives them to 

 satisfy their craving by killing and feeding on sheep. 



That very little insect food is obtainable at this season, 

 in some parts, can be seen from the fact that, when at the 

 Mt. Algidus Station in July, 1907, though I spent nearly a 

 whole day in searching in the frozen ground for larvae, etc.. 



