Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/110



One of the most popular (yet, as I think, erroneous) statements about the Kea, is that the bird chooses the part of the sheep where the kidneys are situated, and then, burrowing into the living animal by means of its powerful mandibles, devours this delicacy.

Nearly every writer on the subject repeats the statement, and some even quote it as a proof of the Kea’s intelligence.

In his “History of New Zealand Birds,” Sir W. Buller quotes a letter from Mr. W. Chamberlain, of Harbourne Hall, Birmingham, who cited the statement as an indication of the parrot’s reasoning powers. He says:—“Consider for a moment the sequence of events and the extraordinary change of habit attributed to the parrot. Between 1865 and 1870 the Kea first comes in contact with the shepherd, and commences to steal his meat, with a marked preference for the kidneys. This is natural enough, and any other parrot with a tendency to animal food might do the same, and here the matter would ordinarily rest. The shepherds would protect their meat, and the parrots would return to their natural food. Not so with the Keas. Between five and six years later they found not only that kidneys are somewhere inside living sheep, but where abouts and the nearest point on the back from which to reach them.”

Mr. Chamberlain is quite right in his statement of the fact, but I think that his deductions are far from correct.