Aug. 6, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
237 
HEINZ 
Vacation Box 
of Good Things 
for the Table 
Special Quantity Price 
H EINZ Vacation Box contains an assortment of pure foods selected 
especially for the needs of camping, motoring, yachting and 
seashore or country housekeeping. There are 28 jars, bottles and 
tins in the box of 21 different delicacies — the choicest of the 57 Varieties. 
All packed in one strong, especially-made box that will stand shipment 
and may be used for storage or repacking. 
LIST OF GOOD THINGS IN VACATION BOX 
2 Jars Peanut Butter. 
2 Tins Apple Butter. 
I Tin Currant Jelly. 
1 Bottle Olive Oil. 
1 Bottle Malt Vinegar. 
I Bottle Chow Chow. 
1 Bottle India Relish. 
2 Tins Tomato Soup. 
1 Bottle Sweet Gherkins. 
I Battle Tomato Ketchup. 
1 Bottle Pickled Onions. 
I Bottle Stuffed Olives. t Bottle Sour Gherkins. 
I Bottle Queen Olives. I Tin Cherry Preserves. 
3 Tins Baked Beans with Tomato Sauce 
2 Tins Baked Red Kidney Beans. 
1 Bottle Euchred Pickle (Sweet). 
2 Tins Cooked Kraut with Pork. 
I Bottle Prepared Mustard. 
1 Tin Strawberry Preserves. 
Heinz Vacation Box may be purchased at all good grocers at the special quantity price of 
$ 5 . 00 , except that West of the Missouri River and at points remote from populous 
centers freight tnay, in some cases, be added. If you have difficulty in finding it, 
send us the name of your grocer and we will arrange with him to supply you. 
H. J. HEINZ CO., Pittsburg!!, Pa., Distributing Branches and Agencies thronghont the World. 
Member American Association for Promotion of Purity in Food Products. 
A NEW ZEALAND BIRD PROBLEM. 
Few birds have received more attention for 
their misdeeds than the kea or mountain parrot 
of New Zealand, whose sheep-slaying habit has 
made him the abhorred of the Colonial stock 
farmer. Something smaller than a rook but en¬ 
dued with powerful claws and yet more power¬ 
ful beak, the kea has turned to evil uses the 
weapons wherewith nature has provided him. 
lie offers a curious and interesting, if costly, 
example of the readiness wherewith bird or 
beast adapt their tastes to opportunities. 
Normally a vegetarian, man put sheep in his 
way and he is become carnivorous. The ques¬ 
tion, most interesting to the inquiring natural¬ 
ist, how the bird originally became a killer of 
animals which were only brought within the 
sphere of his acquaintance in recent times, is 
one which will never be cleared up. Some very 
ingenious speculation has been lavished upon 
the point, not the least plausible being the 
theory that the bird from the beginning was in 
the habit of exploring the curious plant known 
as the “vegetable sheep” for grubs, and when 
the merino came under his notice, he mistook 
the animal for the vegetable, and, exploring the 
fleece for grubs, pursued his investigations so 
far that he reached the sheep’s interior to dis¬ 
cover meat superior to the grubs of his search. 
The theory received much acceptance, as so 
ingenious and picturesque an idea deserved, but 
G. R. Marriner, whose new work, “The Kea,” 
has just come under our notice, offers reason 
for discrediting the vegetable sheep theory. 
This plant (Raoulia eximia ) which resembles a 
mammoth moss or lichen very commonly takes 
the form of a sheep lying down and may easily 
be mistaken for such at a little distance. But 
Mr. Marriner, having carefully explored the re¬ 
cesses of many of these growths, has entirely 
failed to discover therein any grubs to tempt 
the birds, and, further, has failed to find vege¬ 
table sheep which had been torn by the keas. 
This latter failure, we take it, is particularly 
significant, for if there be one trait more marked 
than another in kea character, it is the passion 
for tearing up anything that can be torn, 
whether in mischief or in search of food. 
Another point against the vegetable sheep 
theory is that in the region where the kea was 
first known to attack sheep, Raoulia eximia is un¬ 
known. Yet one other argument—had the bird 
attacked the sheep in the first instance, seeking 
grubs in the wool, it would surely have worked 
the whole possible grub-field offered by the car¬ 
cass; which it does not do. Mr. Marriner’s 
views appeared to us to possess the merit of 
reason based on observation and knowledge of 
the bird’s character and habits. The kea, his 
iniquities apart, is an entertaining fowl. He 
combines the impudence of Cornus splendens 
with the confident tameness of the robin, the 
curiosity of the antelope and the destructiveness 
of the tame rook. It is common—or was com¬ 
mon in the days before man declared war and 
set a price upon his head—for the solitary sheep 
musterer or station hand, to return home to his 
hut in the evening to find that his premises had 
been invaded by keas who had amused them¬ 
selves by tearing up everything tearable, upset¬ 
ting all that could be upset, and dragging out 
of doors as if with felonious intent, any and 
every article their combine^ strength could 
move. For be it noted the kea has place 
among the higher intelligences and understands 
the strength of combined action. 
This tearing-up habit is natural to the kea, 
Again, it is the ordinary usage on New Zealand 
homesteads to erect a “meat gallows” some¬ 
where within easy reach of the house whereon 
the carcass of mutton for household use is hung 
to be flayed and dressed, the fleeces are often 
left about with shreds of fat, etc., attaching; 
also, the heads. In winter the kea, wandering 
in search of food, in default of the berries, 
grubs, roots, etc., on which it normally subsists, 
now buried under deep snow, would investigate 
the carcass, skin or heads on the meat gallows 
or its vicinity; and thus the habit of investigat¬ 
ing fleeces would be easily formed. Beasts and 
birds take readily to new foods when these ap¬ 
peal to the palate, and it has been only too evi- 
American Big Game in Its Haunts* 
The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club. Editor, 
George Bird Grinnell. Vignette. New York. 497 
pages. Illustrated. Cloth. $2.50. 
Contents: Sketch of President Roosevelt; Wilderness 
Reserve, Theodore Roosevelt; The Zoology of North 
American Big Game, Arthur Erwin Brown; Big Game 
Shooting in Alaska — I. Bear Hunting on Kadiak Island; 
II. Bear Hunting on the Alaska Peninsula; III. My Big 
Bear of Shuyak; IV. The White Sheep of Kenai Pen¬ 
insula; V. Hunting the Giant Moose, James H. Kidder, 
The Kadiak Bear and His Home, W. Lord Smith; The 
Mountain Sheep and Its Range, George Bird Grinnell; 
Preservation of the Wild Animals of North America, 
Henry Fairfield Osborn; Distribution of the Moose, 
Madison Grant; The Creating of Game Refuges, Alden 
Sampson; Temiskaming Moose, Paul J. Dashiel; Two 
Trophies from India, John H. Prentice; Big Game 
Refuges, Forest Reserves of North America, Forest Re¬ 
serves as Game Preserves, E. W. Nelson, etc., etc. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
Camp-Fires of the Wilderness* 
By E. W. Burt. Cloth. Illustrated. 221 pages. Price, 
$1.25. 
The volume treats of a multitude of matters of in¬ 
terest to the camper, who, unless he is made comfortable 
by the exercise of a little expert knowledge and thought¬ 
fulness, may find himself when in camp the most miser¬ 
able of mortals. A man who has had experience, makes 
himself as comfortable in camp as at home, while the 
free and independent life, the exercise that he is con¬ 
stantly taking, the fresh air in which he works, eats and 
sleeps, combine to render his physical condition so per 
feet that every hour of every day is likely to be a joy. 
“Camp-Fires of the Wilderness” is written for those 
persons who wish to go into camp, yet are without ex¬ 
perience of travel, chiefly by canoe and on foot, through 
various sections of the country, and it may be read with 
profit by every one who enjoys camping. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
