The Kea.

Southland Times, Issue 19724, 26 January 1906, Page 3

The Kea.

To the Editor. -*■ t" :■. —My attention has been drawn to >’.n article in your paper on the ken or mountain parrot. It ois always lie.a a matter of surprise to me that there should bo any doubt ns to whether the kea actiin fy destroyed sheep. l Sinro about | the year 1890 Ido not know that wo have lost any sheep on our Kingston run through the attacks of this bird, as, in addition to the standing reward for their heads, special efforts were made to destroy nnd drive away the pest, but in the, course of the previous t.venty-Dve years, it is no exaggeration to say that we lost thousands of sheep through the depredations of kens on the range on the west side of Lake Wakntipu, just above Kingston. Quoting from, your .article: “ Mr Guthrie's experience goes to show that once the ken learns to kill a sheep hy striking it sharply on the spinal cord he heroines a regular ‘ nocturnal visitor to the flock.” Now I have examined scores of dead and wounded sheep from kea attacks nnd seldom saw the spine injured, the wound was generally either on one side or the other of the spine, nnd generally caused a lingering death. Knowing the habits of the ken. its insatiable curiosity and the spirit of dosirucriveness evinced by tiro manner in which it would tear our tent, blankets, rugs, ai I oven the leather packsaddP, if these '' -ides in our mustering camps were left for any time unattended to, it has never occurred to me that there was anything wonderful or mysterious in its acquired habit of attacking sheep, when (lie latter animal b.vd In the course of time found its way to the higher uplands among the dills and peaks of the Southern Alps, the home of tile kea. I am, etc , w. s. r>. trotter. Hillgi'ove, 22ml January.