ON THE HABITS OF THE KEA. 299 



results. It began by picking the sheepskins hung out to dry, or 

 the meat in the process of being cured. About 1868 it was first 

 observed to attack living sheep, which had frequently been found 

 with raw and bleeding wounds on their backs. Since then it is 

 stated that the bird actually burrows into the living sheep, 

 eating its way down to the kidneys, which form its special 

 delicacy." 



Mr. Huddleston says : — 



" The reason, I believe, that the bird has been charged with 

 eating the kidney of the sheep it attacks is that the loin or rump 

 of the sheep is the broadest part whereon it can get an easy 

 grip. As the sheep feels its assailant it runs away, with the bird 

 holding on and naturally having its beak over the kidneys, where 

 it sets to work. ... I have found large numbers of sheep with 

 only a very small hole in the back, about the size of a crown, 

 which being examined showed a cavity beneath as large as a 

 man's hand, in which the backbone and ribs were perfectly bare. 

 Others I found with holes in the side through which the intes- 

 tines had been drawn, the sheep being still alive, and in some 

 instances the wound had healed and apparently formed a false 

 anus." An instance of a wound healing as described I have 

 witnessed myself — an opening in the flank. — T. W. 



" Besides grubs, as the Weta (Deinacrida) and the Cicada, 

 they feed on the berries of various alpine shrubs and trees 

 [? T. W.], such as the snowberry {Gaultheria) , Coprosma, Panax, 

 and the little black seed in a white skin of the Phyllocladus 

 alpinus ; the Pittosporum, with its hard seed in a glutinous mass 

 like birdlime ; and the red berry of the Podocarpus ; also, in 

 winter, on the roots of the various herbaceous alpine plants — Aci- 

 phylla squarrosa and colensoi, Ranunculus lyallii, Celmisias, &c. 



"About Mount Cook they breed very early in the year, as I have 

 found their nests in August, when snow was on the ground. The 

 first time that I saw nests at that time of the year was when I 

 was shooting, at an altitude of 3000 ft. I shot a bird that was 

 sitting on a rock. After it fell another appeared on the rock, and 

 from the same place I shot twenty-two. I went to pick up the 

 dead birds, and then found that they had, in the first place, all 

 come out of a hole under the rock. On looking into the hole I 

 saw something moving, which eventually turned out to be young 

 birds. They were out of reach, but after some trouble I managed 



2 A3 



