Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/41

Rh And again, is it likely that a bird would make its home in a wilderness of snow and ice when there are better places for nesting, lower down the mountain, among the very vegetation from which it obtains its natural food?

From what I have personally seen of the Kea’s home, it is not a place of eternal ice and snow, but a spot that, in fine weather at all events, is unsurpassed for beauty and situation.

Below is the ever vernal forest, with all its beautiful tints of green, covering the mountain slopes down to the bottom of the valley, where an entrancing panorama of lake, river and flat spreads out before the eye.

Above, the craggy peaks pierce a sky of exquisite blue; while under foot the sub-alpine flora, in all its quaint beauty, forms a carpet of cushion-like plants, dotted over with small white flowers, like so many stars shining in an emerald sky. Away from the heat of the valley, with a wide, grand outlook and a life-giving atmosphere, the bird has surroundings to be coveted. Sometimes it rises and circles the snowy peaks, but more often it swoops down to where the forest and river-bed meet, and revels among the foliage.

A good deal of support has been given to the Kea’s alleged preference for snow and ice by the fact that travellers, when climbing the Alps, often see the parrot soaring round, and they too readily conclude that this must be its natural environment.

It seems to me that nothing could be more natural than that a bird of such known inquisitiveness and keen sight should fly up and investigate the dark figure of the climber as he makes his way over the snow and ice.

Sir W. Buller, as early as 1888, made very clear the Kea’s true habitat. He says, “I have seen it soaring or flying, often in parties of three or more, from peak to peak, high above the wooded valley; but it is more generally to be met with on the open mountain side, flying from rock to rock, or hopping along the ground amongst the stunted alpine vegetation, in quest of its natural food.”