74 Sydney Porter—■Notes on New Zealand Birds


children, and cuckoos changing into hawks on the approach of

winter.


Most observations of the ordinary person about birds are incorrect,

and it is quite an easy matter for a person to see Keas examining a dead

sheep, for they are exceedingly inquisitive birds, and for the rumour

to grow and grow until it was seized upon as a commercial proposition.


In a New Zealand magazine appeared an article written some little

time ago by a journalist obviously of the sensational school, and judging

by the literary ability displayed, he had been taught by that highly

efficient system which is guaranteed to produce a fully fledged

journalist in the short space of six months by the simple method of

postal lessons. Judging by his aptitude to produce the sensational,

he would have been far better reporting murder cases than investigating

the habits of the Kea. After a long discourse on the blood-thirsty habits

of this bird, absolute and conclusive proof was brought forward, a photo¬

graph of a Kea with a huge lump of mutton just torn from the living

sheep. It was entitled “ Guilty ”. What evidence was there to be

brought forward to dispute this ? The photographer’s trump card,

a camera cannot lie. No, but sometimes photographers do ! It

doubtless had convinced some people, but it didn’t quite convince

me, for the Kea was stuffed, and very badly stuffed at that !


The journalist would possibly get £5, for his article and a unique

photograph, and the case against the bird was again strengthened.

So after all the Kea is a good commercial proposition for some people.

Talking about that reminds me of a little story which I heard from

a one-time gold prospector. A few years ago when seeking the precious

metal in the most southerly part of New Zealand, he came across

a professional Kea hunter, where there were no sheep or likely to be

any. He told the prospector that he was not such a fool to seek the

illusive metal as the Kea heads proved a veritable gold mine for him.


I also met in the South Island a person who had been a companion

in nearly all parts of the bush where the Kea is found, with one of

New Zealand’s well known naturalists, and he stated that they had

never in all their travels come across an authentic case of the Kea

killing sheep.


The Kea, like a picture which needs a frame to set it off, also needs



