Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/104

100 even more. Really they are shrubs of the daisy family, and are provided with a thick, stout, woody main stem and strong roots, which pass far into the rock crevices. Above, the stems branch again and again, and towards their extremities are covered with small woolly leaves, packed as tightly as possible. Finally stems, branches and leaves are all pressed into a dense, hard, convex mass, making an excellent seat for a wearied botanist. Within the plant is a peat made of its rotting leaves and branches, which holds water like a sponge, and into which the final branchlets put their roots: thus the plant lives in a great measure on its own decay.”

There are two kinds; a finer one (Raoulia eximia) which is of a greyish blue colour, and is found over many mountains in Canterbury, and a coarser kind (Haastia pulvinaris) which is of a yellowish brown colour and is confined to the mountains just north of Canterbury.

At a distance a number of these plants do somewhat resemble a few sheep lying down; hence the name.

The supporters of the theory hold that the Kea was in the habit of tearing open these plants in order to get out the large white grubs, which were said to live in them; and that, when sheep first wandered into the birds’ domain, they were mistaken for the woolly vegetable sheep. The bird, with the intention of digging out the grubs, was supposed to tear open the animal’s skin, and, finding meat and fat even more appetising than the grubs, persisted in its efforts and so acquired the habit of sheep-killing.

All this sounds very reasonable, but unfortunately for the theorists it will not bear investigation.

The first objection is that, where the Kea was first known to attack sheep, the true vegetable sheep are unknown, and many mosses are just as conspicuous as the species of Raoulia that grows around Lake Wanaka. Raoulia eximia does not grow further south than Mt. Ida in Central Otago, at present its only known habitat in that province.

Secondly, no large white grubs, big enough to cause the Kea to tear up these tough plants, have ever (as far as I can