262 APPENDIX 



I got them on to safer ground I rounded them 

 up and caught the two wounded animals. Poor 

 beasts, they were in a dreadful state, their 

 backs torn to pieces and the flesh eaten out, 

 though not through to the kidneys. I had to 

 kill the poor things, as their condition was 

 hopeless. 



' While I was thus engaged, the keas were 

 squalling round me quite close, and I managed 

 to kill one of them with my stick. They are 

 very bold, fearless birds, and, like most of the 

 New Zealand birds, intensely curious. Per- 

 sonally I believe that their curiosity is the real 

 origin of their new habit, and that they com- 

 menced it by attacking newly-shorn sheep on 

 which there was a scar or wound. Certainly I 

 never saw a kea on a dead sheep, and as they 

 are not supposed to touch carrion, I do not see 

 how they could well learn to attack live sheep 

 if they only practised on dead sheep that had 

 not become high ; their opportunities would be 

 so few. 



* In further support of my theory, I do not 

 remember once noticing wounded sheep when 

 we mustered for shearing about midsummer; 

 though when we took the sheep down in autumn 

 before the first snowfall there was always a 

 number more or less mutilated. The beginning 



