Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/140

136 Pass at the source of the Wilberforce River; and two years later he saw it still further north, near Arthur’s Pass on the West Coast road.

In 1868 Keas had become common around the Lakes which lie on the borderline of Otago and Canterbury, and ten years later they had increased all round the spot where they were first found, for Sir W. Buller speaks of them as being plentiful in Southland.

In 1881 they were again seen at Arthur’s Pass, for Dr. L. Cockayne (in a communication to me) states that his brother-in-law, Mr. A. Blakely, shot one there at that date.

A year later, in 1882, Mr. W. Potts reported that Keas were known at Grassmere on the West Coast road, and in Lochinvar Station, North Canterbury, and at the head waters of the Esk and Hurunui, that is, about forty miles still further north of Arthur’s Pass their then supposed northernmost limit.

In view of all these facts it is surprising to find Sir W. Buller, in 1883, quoting a letter from a Mr. Shrimpton to the effect that the Keas’ area of distribution did not extend north of the Rakaia River. This is the more striking, because both Dr. Haast and Mr. Potts had already published records of Keas seen northward of that limit. The former found them at Arthur’s Pass, 40 miles north of the Rakaia, in 1867; and the latter tells of their being seen at Hurunui, another 40 miles north of Arthur’s Pass.

Later, in 1888, Mr. W. W. Smith, in a published article, says that Keas had, during the previous three years, just reached the ranges above the Otira Gorge. However, like Sir W. Buller, he had evidently not seen the report of Dr. Haast as to their being seen years before at Arthur’s Pass, which is as far north as the Otira Gorge.

It has been freely stated by writers on the Kea that, since its discovery in Southland, the bird has gradually migrated northward through the Otago and Canterbury provinces. This suggestion has not only been published, but has been almost universally adopted as true. This wide-spread