HOW THE KEA BECAME A SHEEP KILLER.
Mr F. R. Godfrey, in a recent communication (says the "Sydney Mail"), has attempted to throw light on the causes Which have probably led the kea (the New Zealand sheep-destroying parrot) to chance Hβ dietetio habits. In the Middle Island, Ac says, a certain moss or liohen of a white colour grows abundantly. In appearance tots plant looks like a mass of wool. At its roote are found white bodies of fatty nature, on which the kea feeds. What these bodies We appears to be a doubtful matter. They way be larval insects or they may be seeds. At any rate, the parrot errors m the roote of the moßs for the white bodies and eats them. Mr Godfrey suggeste that the sheep's Wool haa been the attracting condition, and that the kea, mistaking the wool for the plant, grubbed on the eheep'e back, with the mult of discovering a fatty morsel in the flbeepa kidney of much more savory nature, bo doubt, than the food it found on the ground.
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Press, Volume LV, Issue 10131, 2 September 1898, Page 5
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178HOW THE KEA BECAME A SHEEP KILLER. Press, Volume LV, Issue 10131, 2 September 1898, Page 5
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