Kea Parrot 



457 



Maories, though it is exceedingly destructive to clothing, furniture, and all that 

 comes within reach of its powerful bill. 



Kea Parrot. A slightly larger and otherwise very different bird is its near 

 relative, the Kea or Mountain Parrot (N. notabilis), which frequents the barren 

 rocky summits of the snowy mountains of the South Island at elevations up to 

 six thousand feet or well above the forests. The color is a dull olive-green, each 

 feather edged with black, while the area above the tail, under wing-coverts, and 

 axillaries are orange-red, and there is more or less of blue on the wings, and 

 the bluish orange tail has a broad band of blackish brown near the tip. During 

 the warmer months the Keas frequent the rocky gullies and peaks with stunted 

 vegetation, where they secure their food of insects, berries, fruits, and nectar, 

 but with the advent of cold weather and when all is concealed beneath a mantle 

 of snow and ice, they are forced to lower levels, and so they discovered some 

 years ago the out-stations of back-country sheep herders. About these stations 

 they found it easy to pick up a living of scraps and offal, and when a sheep was 

 killed they picked the flesh from the head and other discarded portions, not 

 disdaining to make a meal off the sheepskins hung up to dry. But from the 

 office of scavenger they assumed the role of executioner and shortly developed 

 the habit of killing sheep for themselves. Coming in flocks, the birds single out 

 a sheep at random and alighting on its back tear away the wool and pick a hole 

 in the flesh until the fat about the 

 kidneys, of which they are greedily 

 fond, is exposed. The animal, of 

 course, succumbs and after a few 

 relished bits the birds turn their at- 

 tention to another victim. The Keas 

 have greatly increased in numbers 

 since the introduction of sheep raising, 

 and so serious have their depredations 

 become that it has been necessary to 

 abandon the runs in some cases, and 

 a price has been put upon their heads. 

 They are also known to attack horses. 

 In their original state they are de- 

 scribed as very tame, inquisitive birds, 

 easily approached and knocked over 

 by a stone or other missile, and they 

 are frequently caught by the settlers exposing a fresh sheepskin as bait. Their 

 ordinary note is a mewing cry, but they also utter a " short whistle, a chuckle, 

 and a suppressed scream, scarcely distinguishable from the notes of the Kaka." 

 The nest is placed in the crevices of rocks and the eggs are larger and rougher 

 than those of the former species. 



Midway between New Zealand and New Caledonia are two small islands, 

 Norfolk and Philip, each of which was once the home of now extinct species of 

 Nestor, Philip Island, the smaller of these, is only about five square miles in 



FlG. 145. Philip Island Parrot, Nestor pro- 

 ductus. 



