Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/58

54 I doubt if these rodents would be a match for an infuriated Kea.

The most likely reason is, I think, that nesting as they do in a season of fierce storms and cold weather, and their young having to stay for some months in the nest, the parent birds are forced to choose a place where the young may be kept warm and dry.

The Kea’s breeding season commences about June and is continued on to September or even later. The usual time for the eggs to be laid is in July, though some say that eggs have been seen in June. This is, however, the exception rather than the rule. I think it is one of the most striking and interesting facts in New Zealand ornithology that the Kea, living in alpine country, where the severity of the winter is especially felt, builds its nest, lays its eggs, hatches and rears its young, all during the severest months of the winter. During this time, its domain is swept by a succession of severe storms of cold wind, accompanied by snow, which covers the ground many inches deep for months ; and, when the sky is clear, very severe frosts set in, which turn every- thing into a solid frozen mass.

That some birds in warm countries nest in the winter is known; but that a bird should rear its young in winter, at an altitude of from 3,000 to 5,000 feet, in a country where even near the sea level the other birds dare not nest until the spring comes is, to say the least, most extraordinary. Again, not only must the parents have a difficulty in finding food for themselves among the often frozen surroundings, but at this most difficult time of the year they have to supply extra food for their young.

So far I have heard of no good reason why the Kea should nest in midwinter, and I know of none, unless it be to enable the young to be fully developed before the severe weather again comes round.