CORRESPONDENCE Dogs And Keas

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 March 1947, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE Dogs And Keas

[TO THE FniTORl Sir, —Just recently a large number of sheep were killed and maimed by dogs at the Omoto racecourse. What I would like to ask therefore, is why we should still keep up the war of extermination against one of our loveliest native birds, the kea? As for the kea attacking sheep, well, I think, we may as well turn around and say the little tomtits are attacking the dairy cows, and set about wiping them out also. I have never heard or read of a case yet of sheep being attacked by the kea. I nave talked with men who have been among the kea all their lives and’ I have never heard one say yet that he has known the bird to attack sheep. A few years ago I was working on the construction of the Lewis T a ? s highway and I saw these lovely buds shot for nothing at all. I remember one young man in our gang who kepi his rifle alongside his work, and when a pair of keas circled overhead he would whistle them down. I remember one bird which landed on the handle of his wheel-barrow only to be shot at a range of ten yards, and it did not take long for its mate to land on the same perch, only to meet with the same fate. If we keep on shooting our native birds in that manner it will be only a matter of time when the kea will finish up like the huia, and a few more of our native birds—in p e with the words “Kea; extinct, at t foot of his perch, Hukarere, March 17.