Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/15



To write a book about a bird may seem to some a needless task. That depends more on the bird than on the writer. The New Zealand mountain parrot we call the Kea presents a topic of importance from many points of view. For half a century he has been accused of being a sheep-killer. That accusation, persistently and vehemently made, has drawn the attention of the scientific and non-scientific alike. For a parrot of but average proportions to develop a furious carnivorous propensity is zoologically remarkable enough. When this alleged habit is held to be the cause of heavy losses to the sheep-farming industry of a country it demands study also on other than zoological grounds. Naturally enough, much has been written already. For fifty years the Kea has been a veritable Ishmael, and has been treated on the principle: give a bird a bad name and shoot him. Not all that has been told of him, however, is true. Much has been wildest conjecture; part is but colourably accurate; all, until lately, was more or less uncertain. There seemed to he room for a careful and detailed examination of the subject. Such an examination is here attempted.

The writer cannot claim that he is quite alone in either the matter or the method of his investigation. After he had begun his work upon the sheep-killing problem, he found that Professor W. B. Benham, D.Sc., F.R.S., of Otago University, had entered upon the same inquiry, and (as the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute show) had reached a similar conclusion on similar data. To Dr. Benham the writer’s thanks are gratefully tendered for much general help given.

For aid in securing the photographs reproduced he desires to thank Dr. L. Cockayne, F.L.S., the Revs. A. B. Chappell and H. E. Newton, Messrs. Harold Larkin, G. E. Mannering, A. P. Harper, R. P. Freville, Malcolm Ross, E. F. Stead and F. Field.

Expeditions into the Kea country have been made possible by