Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/46

42 climate and press upward almost to the snow-line of our alpine giants. To these food resources may be added insects found in the crevices of rocks, beneath the bark of trees, etc.

A correspondent, in a letter to me on the subject, says: “The Kea eats all the grasses to be found in mountainous country, and besides eating the tender shoots it is particularly fond of the grain or seeds of the blue grass. It turns over the stones and gets the larvae of the ants, and also eats worms, grasshoppers, grubs and beetles.”



When the snow covers the sub-alpine shrubs, and insect life is dormant, the Kea is forced to go lower and lower down the mountain to take shelter in gullies, where it feeds on the hard, bitter seeds of kowhai (Sophora tetraptera), small hard seeds in the fruit of Pittosporum, the black berries of Aristotelia fructicosa, (the native currant), as well as on the fruit of the pitch pine (Dacrydium biforme?) and the totara (Podocarpus totara.).

Mr. Huddlestone gives its bill of fare as follows:—