A Sheep Killing Bird.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8198, 26 January 1906, Page 3

A Sheep Killing Bird.

The much-abused kea recently came under discussion at a meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, and several members of that learned body denied that the bird was in the habit of killing sheep. They stated that from personal observations they were satisfied that the kea had suffered an injustice when a price had been set upon its head. In an interview published in the Tima,ru Herald Mr Robert Guthrie, who "is thoroughly acquainted with the Mackenzie Country, relates that he has actually seen keas attacking sheep and has laid in wait for them with a gun to protect his flocks. The merino on the high country is in the habit of camping in the same place night after night, and the kea, which is of nocturnal habits, visits the camps. Mr Guthrie is convinced from what he has seen that only a few keas learn how to kill sheep, and in one case he was able to identify by its call a particular sheep-killer, and, alter much stalking, to shoot it. He states that he saw this bird alight on the back of a sheep, and by a single sharp stroke of its beak so injure the spinal cord as to paralyse the hinder legs of the animal. He had examined sheep so paralysed, and found a single wound tn the skin and bruise beneath. The poor sheep's hind legs spread out helplessly, and the animal became an easy prey to other birds than the " killer." The kea is naturally a berry-eater, and its taste for mutton has grown within the last twenty or thirty years. Mr Guthrie states that the keas always assemble to feast on the body of a sheep that dies on the ranges, and no doubt this is the first step towards an attack on a live sheep, it would be interesting to secure a report on the whole matter from some thoroughly competent authority. The kea has always found some persons ready to plead " not guilty" on its behalf, and while the weight of evidence seems to be on the other side the controversj 7 has never been satisfactorily settled.