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either seeing or hearing of them. But as to their habits and destructiveness in the neighbourhood 
of the great lakes south, I can speak from a long and painful experience. 
I have reproduced, on a smaller scale, in the woodcut given on page 165, the spirited drawing 
received from Mr. Shrimpton, exhibiting a pair of ungainly nestlings in their alpine nursery. 
There is a fine living specimen of the Kea in the “ Parrot-house ” at the Zoological Society’s 
Gardens, which appears to thrive in spite of the unnatural semi-tropical heat to which it is subjected * 
This bird was received from Dr. De Latour, who sent the following interesting account of it to 
‘ The Field ’ prior to its departure from the colony :— 
« & shepherd in bringing down a mob of sheep was annoyed by one of these Keas attacking the 
sheep while he was driving them down the mountains; being angry, he threw a stone at it and 
knocked it over. He succeeded in capturing it alive ; he did not kill it, and in return the Kea made 
great havoc with his clothes. However, after cutting its wings and tying its legs together, he brought 
it down to his camp. There the shepherd broke his own leg, and came under my care, and the Kea 
came down shortly after. He was in an ordinary cage made of wood and small iron wire. He was 
only a day and a half coming down eighty-four miles, but in that time the cage was all but destroyed, 
the wires bent, some broken in two, as though cut with pliers, and the woodwork was reduced to 
tinder, and it was just a piece of luck that he did not escape. I had a strong cage of galvanized iron and 
stout wire built for him, and he has now been with me for two years. The cage is a big one, about 
3 feet high, 2 feet across, and 18 inches deep, so that he has lots of room to move about in. He is 
rather expensive to keep, as he generally gets a mutton chop every day ; he does not like cooked 
meat, and will only take it if very hungry ; he will not touch beef if he can get mutton, but is not averse 
to pork. Some say the Keas only want the fat, but this bird takes lean and fat impartially ; indeed 
I find the fat parts often left on the bone, but never any of the flesh. I have tried him with canary 
and hemp seed, but he does not seem to care for it, only scattering it about as though for mischief, 
and they are very mischievous. I am told that when they get into an empty hut— and there are 
many of these huts used only on occasions when the shepherds are out mustering and away from 
home for some days— if any blankets, tin pots, sacks, &c. are left, the Keas tear the blankets and 
sacks to pieces, and bend the tin pots until they are useless. 
“ ]yiy Kea does not care much for vegetable food ; give him a lettuce or cabbage and he only 
tears it up and throws it away ; he is, however, fond of the seeds of the sowthistle. I see that you 
sav in your article that a specimen was received by the Zoological Society in 1872, which only sur- 
vived a few days. It has struck me that my bird having been in captivity for two years, and being 
now tame, and we will suppose reconciled to his lot, would be in a favourable condition to bear the 
* The advent of this Parrot was thus chronicled in the London press : — 
“ There is now in the ‘ Zoo 1 a very remarkable bird, the Nestor notabilis, or Mountain Kea, of Now Zealand. It is a parrot 
of strong frame and powerful bill and claws, which were used like those of all Parrots for obtaining a vegetable diet, until the 
colonists introduced sheep and pigs. As soon as this was done the Kea seems to have abandoned vegetable food, and to have 
taken entirely to flesh-eating. He attacks sick or dying or disabled sheep, and with his powerful cutting beak opens a passage 
through the back, and eats the intestines. Even healthy animals are sometimes assailed by the Nestor notabilis , and thore are 
sheep-runs in New Zealand where considerable losses have been incurred through these strangely degenerated birds. The speci- 
men in the Zoological Gardens gave as much trouble to capture as an Eagle, tearing the clothes of the shepherd who knocked it 
down while pouncing on a lamb, and lacerating his hands. The Koa scorns cooked meat, biscuits, fruit, or seeds, and likes raw 
mutton better than any food. He will tear the skin and flesh from a sheep’s head after the furious fashion of a Vulture, leaving 
nothin- but the bare skull. He at one time holds the morsels in his lifted claw, after the style of Parrots, and at another grips 
them under his feet while rending with his beak like a Hawk. This is a very curious example of change of habit, for there is every 
reason to believe that before sheep and pigs were introduced into Now Zealand the Kea was as frugivorous in its meals as most, if 
not all, other Parrots. He will now eat pork and beef, as well as mutton, and has become, m fact, utterly and hopelessly 
carnivorous. It is to be feared, after this example, that temptation is often fatal to birds and beasts as well as mam Had it 
not been for Captain Cook and the English sheep flocks, the Nestor notabilis would have lived and died innocent of crime ; but 
now its bloodstained carcase is suspended outside many a sheepfold near Otago. ’ 
