2!)* 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



they are not to be found. As my excuse for writing this I 

 append a copy of that portion of Dr. Wallace's letter which 

 induced me to think it desirable that the habits of the Kea 

 should be remarked upon : — 



Parkstone, Dorset, 3rd January, 1894. 

 Dear Sir, — I received from a friend of yours a number of the 'Journal 

 of Science,' containing among other things some remarks on the habits of 

 the Kea. As the writer says that I have given " what is generally believed 

 to be a correct description of the bird's habits, &c," it will be time enough 

 to change it when other New Zealand authorities accept Mr. Huddleston's 

 account. I see in another article it is stated that the habit of tearing open 

 the vegetable sheep for insects led to the Kea's tearing open first dead 

 sheep and then living ones. . . . — Yours very faithfully, Alfred R. 

 Wallace.— Taylor White, Esq. 



To this I reply that Mr. Huddleston's article on the Kea is 

 the best I have seen on the subject, and, so far as my own 

 experience goes, is reliable, and for this reason I specially 

 obtained that number of the ' Journal of Science ' which con- 

 tained Mr. Huddleston's paper, and forwarded it to Dr. Wallace ; 

 hence his letter to me thereon. 



It must be remembered that this bird, having for its habitat 

 the tops of alpine ranges, is seen by few other than shepherds 

 and owners of sheep who are hardy enough to head the sheep- 

 mustering parties, and whose business it is to search the rocky 

 mountain-tops in summer for sheep requiring to be shorn or 

 docked, and in winter, about the end of June, to collect, extricate, 

 and drive downward sheep from the then heavily snow-clad 

 summits. An account of this latter dangerous work I gave in a 

 back volume of ' Transactions.' Such are the men who can give 

 the life-history of the Kea, and of these I claim to have been 

 one. But such doings are now a matter of retrospection. 



Since writing the above I have been able to place my hand 

 on Mr. F. F. C. Huddleston's paper. The passage in "Dar- 

 winism " to which he takes exception is the following : — " It [the 

 Kea] belongs to the family of Brush-tongued Parrots, and 

 naturally feeds on the honey of flowers, and the insects which 

 frequent them, together with such fruits or berries as are found 

 in the region. Till quite recently this composed its whole diet, 

 but since the country it inhabits has been occupied by Europeans, 

 it has developed a taste for a carnivorous diet, with alarming 



