J. Cassidy—A Chat about the Kea



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480 miles from one end of the island to the other. Still quoting Mr.

Marriner, we may add, “It is composed of long parallel ranges of

mountains, many thousands of feet in height, crossed all along their

length by shorter transverse ranges, which taper out to the plains.

In between these ranges the rivers run, fed all the year round by the

Alpine snows and cutting out deep gorges between the mountains

which form picturesque defiles opening to the plains.” Southward,

ever southward, the mountain ranges become higher, until the chain

is crowned by Mount Cook, or, to give it its Maori name, Aorangi,

“ the heaven-piercer.”


“ This long stretch of Alpine Country is the home of the Kea . . .

here, in a region of mountain, forest and flood, the bird has flourished

for centuries, until man came, unbidden.”


But, and this it is well to remember, the Kea, although often circling

the snow-clad peaks, more often swoops down to where forest and

river-bed meet to revel among the foliage.


Description of the Kea


The Kea is the New Zealand Parrot (Nestor notabilis ) and is about

the size of one of our Pigeons. Mr. Malcolm Boss writes of it as a

mountain Parrot of beautiful plumage, but Mr. Marriner writes, “ there

is nothing very graceful about the Kea, neither in appearance nor

movement,” and he lays great stress on the “ waddle ” and “ general

clumsiness ” of the bird. He admits that the plumage varies in intensity

of colouring according to the age of the bird and the season of the year.


Olive-green, black-edged, brick-red, and metallic-blue tints are

to be seen in the plumage.


The upper mandible, or beak, is long and much curved, towards

the tip taking on a brownish-black colour, but yellow-tinted at the

crown. The lower mandible is nearly straight and much shorter than

the upper. It is of a lighter colour than the upper beak and lightest

in the young bird.


There would not appear to be any blue-eyed Keas. The colour of

the eyes is a dark brown, approaching black, as the bird ages. Each

eye is encircled with a yellow ring, and the same vivid colour appears

around the nostrils.



