200 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



I have watched the bird at work. To get at the grubs, it will 

 cock its head on one side, look hard at the ground, and then make a 

 dab at it, bringing bits of earth away each time with the hook of its 

 beak, until it gets a short way in. It does not keep its head under 

 ground for any length of time, although it will make a burrow eight 

 or nine inches deep ; but, all the time it is at work, it keeps bringing 

 its heed out sharply to take a look around. 



Besides grubs, they feed on the berries of various alpine shrubs 

 and trees, such as the snow berry (Gaultheria), Coprosma, Panax, 

 the little black seed in a white skin of the Phyllodadus alpinus, the 

 Pittosporum with its hard seed in a glutinous mass like bird-hme, and 

 the red berry of the Podocarpus; also, in winter, on roots of the 

 various herbaceous alpine plants — Aciphylla squarrosa and colensoi, 

 Ranunculus lyallii, Celmisias, etc. 



The Kea has the power of moving its upper mandible to a 

 greater extent than I have noticed in any other of the Nestor family. 



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 soon 

 as the sheep feels its assailant, it runs away with the bird holding 

 on and naturally having its beak just over the kidneys where it 

 immediately sets to work. It will eat any part of the sheep when 

 the animal is either dead or alive, but it prefers the pulp which 

 it strips from the sinews, in the same way that the kakapo strips the 

 pulp from grass. I have found large numbers of sheep with only a 

 very small hole on the back, about the size of a crown, which on 

 being examined, showed a cavity beneath as large as a man's hand, 

 in which the backbone and ribs were perfectly bare. Others I have 

 found with holes in the side through which the intestines had been 

 drawn, the sheep being still alive ; and, in some instances, the wound 

 had healed and apparently formed a false anus. 



They become very tame if not disturbed, and their antics are 

 very amusing to watch. At Mount Cook my old collie dog was 

 frequently the victim of their pleasantries. In the evening — their 

 usual time to congregate— they would find the dog lying in front of 

 the house ; they would then walk around him, first one would go up 

 and pull his tail and run away, another would follow suit, and so on 

 until the victim would get up growling and retire into the verandah. 



They would then form a circle, and one would step into the 

 centre and make a variety of sounds as if he were addressing the 

 others, who would keep perfectly still until he finished up with a cry 

 like " bow-wow," when they would all hop round him. They seem to 

 be a very unselfish lot of fellows, as they will keep this performance 

 up for a considerable time, allowing each member to address the 

 assembly. 



They are very playful and inquisitive, and will wrestle and roll 

 one another about like kittens. In fact they carry their playfulness 

 to such an extreme as to become a nuisance to surveyors, whose flags 

 they pull down as soon as the surveyors put them up. Another 

 instance of their playfulness came under my notice, during the last 



