J. Cassidy—A Chat about the Kea



75



generally remains inviolate, as its natural defences of intervening rocks

defy the efforts of human hands unless aided by the use of heavy iron

implements that no mountaineer would be likely to employ.”


However, it is not always that the Kea chooses such breeding-

places, although no doubt they are favourites. If these rock-tunnels

are not available a cairn of stones, or even a hole in a clay bank, may

be selected. In a fine photograph secured by Mr. Marriner after over¬

coming many acute difficulties, he shows the natural entrance to a Kea’s

run, and the hole goes 10 feet into the rock. The Kea’s breeding season

commences about June and runs on to September. It is a curious

fact connected with the Kea that the bird constructs its nest, lays its

eggs, hatches and rears its young, all during the severest months of

the New Zealand winter. Cold winds and snow and frosts, which turn

everything into a solid frozen mass, do not deter them. It has been

suggested that this nesting in mid-winter may be that it enables the

young to be fully developed before the severe weather again comes

round.


The Eggs


The Kea egg is about the size of that of a domestic Pigeon ; it is

white in appearance with rough shell and no markings. There are

usually four eggs. The young birds stay in the nest for a long time,

three, four, or even more months. As fledgelings they smell particularly

unpleasant and are the most helpless of creatures, even when the

size of young adult Pigeons. There is indeed very little in the young

Kea that portends its future liveliness and brightness, its intelligence

and mischief.


The Kea at Play


Character often comes out in play. When the young birds are at last

able to move about with agility they are extremely amusing. No one

who has Keas about them can suffer from dullness. Here is a description

from a party which had pitched its tent in a Kea district: ‘ while you are

driving one bird away from the tent another will be trying his beak

on the coat that you have hung up on a tree for safety. With their

merry eyes and their shining coats, their perky ways and their tameness

and extreme inquisitiveness, they are welcome and unwelcome at the



