54 



entering or leaving crevices in the rocks, or soaring with motionless wrings from peak to peak, far 

 above the screaming Kaka or the chattering Parrakeet. The swift-winged Falcon is perhaps the 

 sole intruder in its wild domain. At early da\vn its peculiar note is heard, very like the mewing 

 of a cat. Though in some of the more secluded gullies it may be noticed throughout the day, it 

 really appears to wake up into activity at dusk, being, to a certain extent, nocturnal in its habits. 

 It is scarcely less gregarious than its congener, JSf. meridionalis . In the moonlight nights of 

 winter, numbers have been observed on the ground feeding. It can hardly be deemed an arboreal 

 bird in the strict sense of the term. 



" The rigour of a hard winter, when the whole face of the alpine country is changed so as to 

 be scarcely recognizable under a deep canopy of snow, is not without its influence on the habits 

 of this hardy bird. It is then driven from its stronghold in the rocky gully, and compelled 

 to seek its food at a far less elevation, as its food-supply has passed away gradually at the 

 approach of winter, or lies buried beyond its reach. The honey-bearing flowers have faded and 

 fallen long before ; the season that succeeded, with its lavish yield of berries, and drupes that 

 gaily decked the close-growing Coprosmas^ the trailing PimeUas^ or the sharp-leaved Leucopogon, 

 has succumbed to the stem rule of winter. Nor has this change of season afi'ected the flora of 

 the Alps alone : the insect world, in a thousand forms, which enlivened every mountain-guUy 

 with the chirp and busy hum of life now lies entranced in its mummy state, as inanimate as the 

 torpid lizard that takes its winter sleep sheltered beneath some well-pressed stone. Under the 

 eflects of such a change, that cuts off the supply of food, the Kea gradually descends the gullies, 

 where a certain amount of shelter has encouraged the growth of the kowhai that yields its supply 

 of hard bitter seeds, the beautiful Pittosporums with their small hard seeds packed in clusters, 

 and the black-berried Aristotelia; these and numerous other shrubs or trees, such as the pitch- 

 pine and totara, furnish the means of life to the Parrot. It is during the continuance of this 

 season that we have had the best opportunities of becoming somewhat familiar with it. Within 

 the last few years it has discovered the out-stations of some of the back-country settlers. Of 

 course every station has that indispensable requisite, a meat-gallows. It has found out and fully 

 appreciates the value of this institution, as occasionally affording an excellent supply of food. 

 The gallows is generally visited by night; beef and mutton equally suffer from the voracity of the 

 Kea, nor are the drying sheepskins despised*. These visits may be looked upon quite as social 



* Mr. Potts, in a communication to ' N'ature/ on the development of carnivorous habits in the Xea, has given the 

 following extracts from the ' Otago Daily Times ' newspaper: — " Por the last three years the sheep belonging to a settler, 

 Mr. Henry Campbell, * in the Wanaka district (Otago), appeared afflicted with what was thought to be a new kind of 

 disease ; neighbours and shepherds were equally at a loss to account for it, having never seen any thing of the kind before. 

 The first appearance of this supposed disease is a patch of raw flesh on the loin of the sheep, about the size of a man's 

 hand ; from this, matter continually runs down the side, taking the wool completely off the part it touches ; and in many 

 cases death is the result. At last a shepherd noticed one of the Mountain- Parrots sticking to a sheep and pecking 

 at a sore, and the animal seemed unable to get rid of its tormentor. The runholder gave directions to his shepherds to 

 keep watch on the Parrots when mustering on the high ground ; the result has been that, during the present season, 

 when mustering high upon the ranges near the snow-line, they saw several of the birds surrounding a sheep, which was 

 freshly bleeding from a small wound in the loin ; on other sheep were noticed places where the Kea had be^-un to attack 



them, small pieces of wool having been picked out.' The birds come in flocks, single out a sheep at random, 



and each, alighting on its back in turn, tears out the wool and makes the sheep bleed, till the animal runs away from the 



^ 





I 



fbe roof of a 1 

 very s^tl""^ 

 rod- 



or 



H 



roof of the b 

 ^thout any 

 managed wit> 

 removed. On 

 places for the 

 advantage of t 

 bucket, raising 

 local in its disf 

 for in one inst 

 the edge of th 

 The pen. 



Those that fi. 

 sheep's heads ' 

 nothing but tl 

 Perching itsel 

 flesh, devourin 



do^\Ti with on« 

 fashion of Par 

 a fresh sheep-, 

 approached an 



In 



comiL .1 



remarkable ca 

 Parrots took t 

 out necessity, ' 

 associated t-? 

 iMosmictus\ 



Parrots (P/.,^, 

 species indj 

 ^^ity and fri 

 «*er, and hvi 



rich pl^ 



J 



gei 



their 



generall 



y Ucii 



^est of ti. 



If. in 



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=^ttacked, 

 tirds : 



^' same aih%. 



