THE KEA LEGEND.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume L, Issue 8918, 6 November 1905, Page 7

THE KEA LEGEND.

HAS THE BIRD BEEN WRONGED?

[PBESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, November 5. As it is generally supposed that the kea parrot attacks living sheep a war of extermination has been carried on against the luckless bird. There seems to be a doubt as to whether there ifl any truth in the stories of the bird's misdeeds. At a meeting of the Philosophical Society one scientific authority after another declared that after years of careful investigation he had been unable to discover a ehred of evidence in support of the alleged fact, every speaker acquainted with the bird and with the region it inhabits expressing complete disbelief of the story. Curiously enough the investigators do not seem hitherto to have compared notes on the subject. Their enquiries have been conducted indefinitely, but have invariably led to the same conclusion. If the kea legend has not been exploded it has been seriously discredited, and it is suggested that the County Councils should consider t3ie advisableness of stopping subsidies until there- is unimpeachable evidence of the predatory character of the bird.