Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/138

134 paid ten shillings per head since 1900, and in my experience the damage done to the sheep has not been serious since a substantial reward was instituted. The payment of a high price for heads is the best means of keeping shepherds and others, engaged in the hill country, continually on the war path. Four of my neighbours now pay ten shillings each for heads.”

Up to 1906 the Government paid 6d. per head, but this has been raised to 1s.; and, as the station owners usually pay 1s. 6d., the men receive altogether 2s. 6d. per head.

When the birds are shot either the upper mandible is pulled off and kept in a match box until the station is reached, or else the head is screwed off and, when brought in to the homestead, threaded on a string or wire.

It is quite a common sight on the back stations to see a number of old decaying heads hanging on a nail in some little-used shed. Here they usually remain until a stock inspector visits the place or some one pays a visit to the nearest town. It naturally follows that the heads become so decayed that the offensive odour given out from them makes it almost impossible to count them out.

One County Council clerk promised to send me down a large supply of heads for scientific purposes, but they smelt so badly that he knew the railway authorities would refuse to carry them, and so he buried the heads to get rid of them.