258 APPENDIX 



heard of these birds being seen much below 

 the snow-line, and certainly never in the low 

 country, and never in "bush," i.e. forest. The 

 " snow-line " in New Zealand means the height 

 at which all timber and shrubs cease growing 

 on the mountains. The bush ends quite sud- 

 denly at the line ; above that there is nothing 

 but grass, moss, rocks and a few Alpine flowers, 

 and possibly a few small berries. The snow 

 lies down to the line for about six months, 

 more or less, according to the severity of the 

 season, but the rest of the year the mountains are 

 clear of snow except in a few deep hollows. 

 The average height of the mountains is some 

 seven or eight thousand feet. 



* As to the original food of the kea, it is 

 difficult to speak with certainty. There were 

 unfortunately no naturalists among the nine or 

 ten squatters who had mountain runs in those 

 days, and it was only on these runs that the 

 kea could be observed. But when one is 

 mustering sheep on mountains 8000 feet high, 

 one has little time or inclination to attend to 

 anything but the work in hand. Still we did 

 discuss the matter, and the general conclusion 

 was that the kea lived chiefly on grubs and 

 insects, possibly on lizards if they existed so 

 high up ; the whole eked out with such seeds 



