400 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



attack sheep ; "usually one or two old birds, known as ' sheep- 

 killers,' do the killing, and the others share the spoil " ; neither 

 do the Keas " choose the lambs or weaklings, but in most cases 

 the choicest of the flocks is killed." Their depredations may be 

 estimated by the complaint of one sufferer : " One year I had a 

 bad muster ; four hundred woolly sheep came in at the beginning 

 of winter, when the snow fell and the sheep could not get away. 

 I placed them, as I thought, in a safe position, on the hillside 

 close to where I lived. In spring, when I went to have a look 

 at them, the Keas had killed about two hundred of them." It 

 is not surprising to read that a price has been put upon the 

 heads of these marauders, usually 2s. 6d., though sometimes as 

 much as 10s. We may feel a certain amount of pity for the 

 destruction of birds who poach over our agricultural lands and 

 orchards, but for the Kea, who puts the sheep to a particularly 

 cruel and lingering death there need be little clemency. There 

 will never be perfect peace between man and other animals ; the 

 most humane and tender-hearted florist would gladly sign a 

 decree for the utter extermination of slugs by the most effica- 

 cious means. Some teachings of Socialism, the right to live 

 with the right to share, fortunately fail with the treatment of 

 the Slug and the Kea. 



There can be little doubt that the Kea has, comparatively 

 speaking, recently acquired its carnivorous propensities, and the 

 different theories proposed to account for this change in habits 

 are fully discussed by the author, who has successfully shown 

 how a small volume can be written on a single bird, readable 

 from beginning to end and containing all we want to know. 

 The pages are well and fully illustrated. 



Correction. — The publishers of ' The Wild Beasts of the 

 World,' reviewed in our last issue (ante, p. 358), areT. C. &E. C. 

 Jack, and not T. C. & E. C. Black, as printed. 



