Sydney Porter—Notes on New Zealand Birds



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liking especially potato peelings. Their inquisitive nature also led

them to spend a good deal of their time examining various objects

such as tin cans, bottles, etc. There were one or two wild cats to be

seen consorting with the Parrots and though the cats wandered in

amongst the Keas, the birds took not the slightest notice of them.


The sexes are easy to distinguish, the male bird appears to have

the cere and the skin round the eye yellow, while in the female it is

black. The lower mandible in the male is also a much brighter yellow,

he also has a much lighter coloured cap. I have never seen this way

of sexing the Kea mentioned before but I am almost sure this is correct.

I thought at first that the dark coloured birds might be the young ones,

but there are several in the Wellington Zoo which have been there for

a considerable time and the skin still remains dark. I am open to

correction, though, on this matter.


Like many other New Zealand birds this Parrot is semi-nocturnal,

and can be heard flying around long after the light has fallen. It

can also be heard before the dawn in the mornings. With the four

birds which I brought back to England, I found that most of the

feeding was done at night. They roost in crevices in the rocks, under

overhanging boulders or beneath the thick, matted alpine bushes.

The Keas nest in deep holes in the rock, usually in places utterly

inaccessible to human beings. This is one thing that has been to a

large extent the salvation of the Kea. During the whole time that

“ The Hermitage ” has been in existance no one has ever found a single

nest and yet the guides are always penetrating to very remote

parts.


I was at Mount Cook in April and was told that the young ones had

been round for a month or so. By allowing four weeks for incubation

and six weeks for the young in the nest, it must be some time in

December when the eggs are laid.


It has been reported that eggs have been found in July, which would

be in the midst of the very severe alpine winter ; one would hardly

think that the birds would nest then.


The guide residing at the rest hut by the Tasman Glacier told me

that the Keas have a very annoying habit of flying up onto the central

ridge of the roof with small stones and then letting them roll down the



