The Parrots : The Kea 189 
he hoists his Jolly Roger, and they treat him accordingly. On 
one run near Mount Cook, a tally of losses through the kea 
was kept for thirteen years, and the average loss was five 
hundred sheep a year out of a flock of from five to six 
thousand. Some maintain that he does not attack a vigorous 
sheep, but either a weakling, or a dead animal; maintain, too, 
that the rough usage of the shearers is responsible for the 
death of many sheep for which the kea is blamed. However, 
the sheep attacked and finally killed has been traced by fol¬ 
lowing the track of wool-fragments torn away by the kea 
whilst perched on the buttocks of the distracted animal. 
e common cr^^ is as in (1). It is a most plaintive one, 
as though the bird were the injured party. It varies in many 
ways; at times the slur is from a short note to a longer one, 
as in (1), at times from a long note to a shorter one, as in 
(2). The latter cry I heard several times over the moraine 
of the Tasman Glacier; and whereas (1) is plaintive, (2) is 
more sinister. The interval, too, constantly varies; it is often 
much less than shown, and is sometimes so slight that the 
sound is very like the mewing of a lost kitten. In November, 
1910, I heard several kea in the heights of the Malte Brun 
Range at the terminal face of the Murchison Glacier, crying 
out before daylight. A most characteristic cry was the one 
shewn in (3). The first note was very much prolonged, and 
slurred vigorously down through an octave. More curious 
was this cry where the long note was uttered with a rapid 
vibrato, as though it were bubbling through water, and then 
slurred down a sixth. Again, the pitch and the interval 
constantly varied. 
As will be noted, the quality of the cry, and the vocalization, 
are somewhat akin to those of the kaka, a bird of the same 
