DISTRIBUTION. 141 



after passing north through the Peel Forest and the Ashburton 

 Gorge, the Kea had commenced to kill sheep around Mt. 

 Torlesse. Since then it has slowly extended north to the 

 stations in the Amuri District, and so badly affected were they 

 that in 1906 a meeting of runholders was held in Culverden to 

 try to abate the nuisance. 



So far I have no records of sheep-killing in Marlborough 

 and North Nelson, though the Keas are now found there. 



In Westland also the Keas have spread, for in 1906 Mr. 

 Condon, of Bruce Bay, South Westland, for the first time 

 had some sheep killed by Keas. 



BONES OF KEA : Found in Chatham Islands. 



The fact that no fossils of Keas have been found in the 

 North Island of New Zealand seems to indicate that the birds 

 never extended further than the South Island ; but, while in 

 the Museum, Christchurch, I unexpectedly came across two 

 wing bones and a lower mandible of a Kea, obtained from 

 the Chatham Islands. These interesting specimens were 

 presented to the Museum by Mr. J. J. Fougere, of Te One, 

 on the main island, and were identified by the late Capt. F. 

 W. Hutton. These, with some more Keas' bones and other 

 sub-fossils, were found in some drifting sand-hills at Petre 

 Bay, by Mr. Fougere, in 1897. In a letter he states : " I do 



