Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/44

40 indicate conclusively that the bird is not so fond of cold stormy heights as many people suppose.

People have often wondered how the birds manage to exist in the alpine country when an excessively heavy fall of snow absolutely covers the land for many weeks, so that even the sheep out on the open hill-side are buried so deeply as to prevent the birds molesting them. An experience that came to



Mr. R. Guthrie, of Burke’s Pass, throws a good deal of light on this question. Many years ago he was out looking after sheep on Mistake Station during a heavy snowfall, when, walking on the frozen crust of snow on a hillside, he suddenly broke through and sank first into a bed of snow and then through the tops of some scrub on which the smooth sheet of snow was lying. The snow was so thick that, with the tops of the scrub, it made all dark below. Hearing some odd sounds, he struck a match to see what sort of companions he had fallen in with, and there he found several Keas busy pecking the ground for grubs and gurgling over their work; and further away he could hear