Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/63

Rh Mr. C. V. Rides, of the Acclimatisation Gardens, Christchurch, in a letter to me on the native birds, says that when kept in captivity they change their character to a large extent, and the wild duck, whose natural food is largely young green shoots and herbs and any small freshwater animals available, prefers cakes and buns to the usual wheat and maize.

If birds, as in the cases cited, take readily to new food, it seems to me that the mere fact that the young Keas will eat meat does not in any way prove that the taste has become hereditary.