of this, wedged its beak into the space, and using its head as a lever, it moved the bucket, raising it 
sufficiently to effect its escape *. 
The ‘New Zealand Herald’ of Sept. 12, 1880, contained the following announcement, which 
shows how rapidly the Kea nuisance had spread through the southern part of the country 
“ Mr. t). A. Cameron, one of the oldest runholders in Lake Country, Otago, is throwing up his 
run at the Nokomai through the Keas, which, if not more numerous, are, according to report, 
becoming greater adepts at the destruction of sheep. Formerly the birds used to annoy and worry, 
but now they kill outright. There is not a run which includes mountainous country, but is more or 
less plagued with the infliction, and on one spur alone on one mountain range in the Wakatipu, a 
runholder lost no less than 1000 sheep during last year.” 
From the KcKenzie country Mr. W. W. Smith reports in 1883 . “ Ihe estimated number of 
sheep annually destroyed by these birds is fifteen thousand, lormerly they attacked only the weak 
and dying sheep, caught in the snow-drift ; but now the strongest and weakest suffei alike, both in 
summer and winter.” 
The war which is now being waged against this Parrot must, in the end, bring about its exter- 
mination. On some of the sheep-runs a bonus of three shillings a head is paid to the men for all 
they kill. Mr. Kolleston informed me that on his own little run at the Ashburton he had paid in 
one season for as many as 800; and I noticed, as far back as April 1884, a newspaper report that 
at the previous meeting of the Lake County Council no less than 2000 Keas’ beaks were paid for. 
In March 1884, Mr. R. Bouchier, the Sheep Inspector at Queenstown, reported that on a station 
on Lake Wanaka a mob of hogget-sheep were attacked by Keas, and in one night no less than 200 
of them killed. Most of the birds, however, were afterwards destroyed by the shepherds, whose zeal 
in this work was stimulated by the bonus. The Inspector reported further that at the subsequent 
shearing hardly a sheep was marked, while the death-rate had been reduced by nearly one half. In 
the meantime the beaks of 1574 birds had been delivered at his office, for payment of the reward. 
It is the fashion for cabinet ornithologists to declaim against the destruction of this “ interesting 
form.” But there is a good deal to be said on the other side. In some parts of the country the 
Kea nuisance has reached such a pitch that the runholders have been fairly driven off their country. 
In places where a few years ago only occasional birds were seen they now appear in hundreds, attracted 
of course by the sheep f. They are most numerous in winter, when, as already explained, they are 
driven down from their natural home in the mountains by the severity of the climate ; and so bold 
do they become in their depredations, that, as I have been assured by credible eye-witnesses, they 
will actually attack a mob of sheep whilst being driven to the yards ! 
As a rule they confine their attentions to the latter animal ; but there is at least one well- 
* At a meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, a paper was read hy Mr. Alexander McKay, who related a 
number of personal "observations on the Kea, which went to prove that this bird possesses a high degree of intelligence. The 
author expressed his own conviction, as the result of careful observation, that the Keas had the power of communicating ideas 
among themselves. He related an anecdote within his own experience in support of this view. He stated that on « one 
occasion a number of Keas, after a consultation, delegated one bird twice in succession to untie the knot in a string which 
fastened one of their number to a pick-handle. This statement,” the report continues, “evoked some discussion. Mr. W. M. 
Maskell expressed great astonishment that even an intelligent bird like the Kea should know how to untie a knot at first sight ; 
but Dr. Hector, Mr. W. T. L. Travers, and other gentlemen who were present related instances of still more surprising sagacity 
on the part of native birds.” 
f There occurs the following singular confusion of two well-known New-Zealand species (the Kakapo and the Kea) in Mr. 
A 11 Wallace’s ‘ Australasia,’ at page 561 “ Another remarkable bird is the Owl-Parrot {Strimjops habroptilus) of a greenish 
colour and with a circle of feathers round the eyes, as in the Owl. It is nocturnal in its habits, lives in holes in the ground 
under the tree-roots or rocks, and it climbs about the bushes after berries, or digs for fern-roots. It has fully developed wings, 
but hardly ever flies, and has lately exhibited a singular taste for flesh, picking holes in the backs of sheep and lambs ” (!). 
