April i .», iqo6] 



NA TURE 



559 



duotion of chemistry among the Esiex farmers and horti- 

 culturists is largely due, could no doubt furnish some 

 interesting information on this subject. At any rale, it 

 was by the close observation of Mr. Dymond's work during 

 the period of my connection with the Essex Technical In- 

 struction Committee that 1 was most strongly convinced 

 of the suitability of chemistry as a subject for secondarj 

 rural schools. 



Mr. Dunstan may, however, not include the work being 

 done at the Chelmsford central school within the range of 

 his criticism, as the pupils there catered for are certainly 

 beyond the age of those attending the otheF two schools 

 dealt with in this letter. In defending the claims of 

 chemistry as a suitable subject — not d< gmatically, for I am 

 quite open to arguments against my view — it is hardly 

 necessary to say that the most liberal interpretation of the 

 definition of the term is asked for, and that my advocacy 

 presupposes that the subject is properly, i.e. scientifically, 

 taught. I am quite aware that distinguished authorities 

 like Prof. Clifford Allbutt and Sir William Ramsay have 

 expressed views similar to those of Mr. Dunstan. That 

 makes it all the more necessary, however, to raise the 

 whole question and have it authoritatively handled in the 

 interests of rural education. R. Melbola. 



April 5. 



Carr ivorous Habits of the New Zealand Kea Parrot. 



In your issue of December 2S, 1905, there occurs a note 

 referring to statements made at a meeting of the Philo- 

 sophical Institute of Wellington with regard to the habits 

 of Nestor notabilis, to the effect that the carnivorous 

 habits that have been attributed to this parrot are ex- 

 aggerated, if not totally untrue. It is unfortunate that 

 1 hi- report of the meeting has obtained the wide currency 

 that Nature will give it, for it is abundantly evident that 

 Hi' speakers at Wellington were unacquainted with the 

 fai 1 s about the kea. 



In the course of various trips about the South Island 

 of New Zealand during the last five or six years, I have 

 made inquiries from shepherds and others likely to know 

 about the kea as to how far their own personal acquaint- 

 ance with this bird tallied with the common statements 

 that they attack sheep. I was surprised to find that, in 

 North Canterbury and in Marlborough, these men doubted 

 tin- truth of these statements. They had never known the 

 kea attack sheep in these districts. I w-as, consequentlv, 

 inclined to take the view just put forward by the members 

 of the Wellington Institute. I then wrote a series of 

 identical letters to run-holders, shepherds, and others who 

 were supposed to have had experience in this matter in 

 Otago, with the result that overwhelming evidence of the 

 existence of this habit was presented to me. Possibly the 

 " naturalists and estate agents " of the Wellington Institute 

 had not tapped the right district ; that they gave their 

 opinion in good faith I do not for a moment doubt. 



It must be borne in mind that the kea is confined to 

 the high mountainous country of the South (or Middle) 

 Island, and does not occur in the North Island. It lives 

 in the rough mountain tops in Alpine districts, and it is 

 in this high, rough country that the damage to sheep has 

 occurred, as Sir W. Buller has pretty fully described in 

 his monograph on the " Birds of New Zealand." 



1 1 was in the Wanaka district, in Otago, that the 

 greatest amount of damage was done in the earlv days of 

 sheep-farming, and it was to managers of stations, to 

 shepherds, musterers, and "kea shooters" employed on 

 some of these stations that my inquiries were directed. 



Several of these run-holders lost sheep by thousands, and 

 reckoned their losses from kea attacks by thousands of 

 pounds ; some were practically ruined by the kea and the 

 rabbit combined. 



They engaged men specially to shoot and otherwise 

 destroy keas ; tin- county councils gave is. to 2s. 6d. a 

 head for the birds: the squatters aid Government also 

 paid for beaks. Is it probable that these people would 

 expend hundreds, nay, thousands, of pounds on a chimera? I 



Let me quote one or two extracts from letters received 

 by me from men who have seen the kea attai king sheep, 

 who have seen the sheep coming in at muster with holes 

 in their sides and the entrails hanging therefrom, and 



NO. I902, VOL. 73] 



on shearing have noted the wounds on the skin. These 

 men, I may say, are well known in the district, and I 

 have taken every care to apply only to those whose word 

 may be relied on to give their own personal experience. 

 These letters I hope to publish in full in the Transactions 

 of the New Zealand Institute next year, so that their 

 personal experiences in the early days of sheep-farming 

 may he preserved. 



.Mr. Fraser, now stock inspector in Nelson province, 

 writes : — " I was engaged sheep-farming in the Hawea 

 and Wanaka lake districts in 1871-1883. I lost thousands 

 of sheep from keas. I have seen the kea attacking the 

 sheep, and also eating into a sheep when the latter was 

 stuck in deep snow. I have opened scores of kea crops 

 and found wool and meat therein. I have laid poison in 

 dead sheep in snow, gone back later and found dead 

 keas. " 



It was at Mr. Henry Campbell's station near Lake 

 Wanaka, Otago, that these injuries to sheep were first 

 I in 1X68) traced to the kea, and I quote a letter from a 

 Mr. J. II. King, who, early in the 'seventies, was 

 employed to shoot the keas : — 



" I have seen a flock of twenty or thirty birds attack 

 a mob of sheep in the high precipitous country. The 

 sheep as soon as attacked would huddle together as if 

 driven by dogs ; the keas would harass them until one 

 kea would suddenly alight on a sheep's back, holding on 

 to the wool of the rump. The sheep so attacked would 

 immediately single itself from the mob and rush frantically 

 about, and would either go over a bluff or drop down 

 from exhaustion, when the kea which had still held on 

 was joined by several others, and they soon destroyed the 

 sheep." 



Mr. King has shot a kea which was on a sheep's back. 



It may be noted that the attacks are mostly made at 

 night, hence the rarity of personal observation of these 

 attacks ; that thev occur in a comparatively limited area, 

 from the region of Mount Cook and the Mackenzie country 

 in South Canterbury to the Takitimu range in South- 

 land, but the centre of the area is round lakes Wanaka, 

 Hawea, and Wakatipu. 



Finally, as a comment on the irresponsible statements 

 made at the Wellington Institute, I may qucte from the 

 Otago Daily Times of February 16, 1906 : — " A meeting 

 of landholders at Culverden to-dav passed a resolution 

 urging the Government to increase the bonus of 6d. each 

 paid for keas' heads, and asking the county councils of 

 Canterbury affected bv the kea nuisance to cooperate with- 

 them in petitioning the Government for assistance in re- 

 ducing the pest. The keas have been very numerous in 

 the mountainous parts of Amuri county during the last 

 two years. They seem to have moved northwards from 

 Otago. ..." 



The report then proceeds to give the experiences of 

 various Canterburv run-holders, which are in all respects 

 similar to these recorded thirty vears ago by the Otago 

 men {vide Boiler's " Birds " and Hutton's " Animals of 

 New Zealand "). 



There can be no doubt that the keas have wrought, and 

 are still causing, great havoc among sheep in certain 

 districts. 



It mav be worth noting that the statement frequently 

 made (vide Wallace's " Darwinism ") that thev " go for 

 the kidney-fat " esoecially is an exaggeration. Those 

 men whom I have interviewed tell me that the kea will 

 eat any part, even the entire carcase, of a sheep, leaving 

 the bones (lean ; they are not such " gourmets " as has 

 been supposed. W. B. Bexham. 



Dunedin, February 18. 



a New Prodii-tnf Actinium. 

 Recent wcrk has directed attention to the great simi- 

 laritv in the modes of transformation of actinium and 

 thorium. Thorium, probably itself inactive, gives rise to 

 radio-thorium illahn, Jahrbuch J. Radinnct. u ; 

 ''•• t.1.) ^ which emits a rays; radio-thorium forms 

 thorium N, which is followed by the other well known 

 products, the emanation and the active deposit. Actinium 

 behaves in a very similar way. By the same method, which- 

 was successful in separating thorium X from thorium, 

 Gcdlewski (Phil. Mat;., July, 1005) showed that a 1 



