64 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



stare, and glared down earnestly at the child ; and 

 though I could not understand this at the time, on 

 finding Hasselquist's note it struck me that a 

 child-killing Owl might not be at all an impos- 

 sibility. 



To return to the Kea ; Smith Woodward has 

 suggested, in Mivart's book on birds, that these 

 Parrots used in the days of the existence of the 

 great Emu-like Moas in New Zealand to attack 

 and vivisect these now extinct birds in the same 

 manner as their descendants now do the introduced 

 sheep ; and the possibility of this must of course 

 be borne in mind. The large struthious birds at 

 the present day seem peculiarly helpless against 

 the attacks of smaller birds ; in the Calcutta Zoo 

 Crows have lined a nest of feathers pecked from the 

 back of an Emu, and have pecked sores on the backs 

 of jDstriches. This did not happen in my time, 

 but I have seen a Crow sit on the back of an Ostrich 

 and peck it. 



If the Kea were thus always more or less carni- 

 vorous, its peculiarities would be easily understood ; 

 it is, as a matter of fact, in gait and movements 

 much more like a Raven than a Parrot, running 

 freely, and hopping frequently, while it is said 

 often to sail on outspread wings when in flight. 

 Its beak also, very long for a Parrot's and with a 

 comparatively gentle curve of the upper jaw, and 

 its comparatively long legs, with its very dull 

 olive-green plumage, suggest a carnivorous bird 

 rather than a Parrot ; but after all, these peculiarities 



