Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/73

Rh how quickly a Kea will adapt itself to circumstances. This particular bird, after I had carried her on my back for five or six hours, got so accustomed to the motion that she would call softly to herself, or eat strawberries out of my hand as we went along. If the climbing was rough and the cage was temporarily upside down, she would brace herself with feet and beak, and quietly wait until she was righted. So quiet, indeed, did she become, and so docile, that we



called her Angela. . . . . We chose a rocky promontory, with a stunted birch on the end of it, for our traps, as it commanded a fine view of the gully and could be seen from our camp.

“Here we set our traps, and, it being already dark, we returned to camp for the night.

“One of the call birds we kept in a wire-netting run near the tent, and also in sight of the bird up by the traps. The advantage of this was that if our distant bird saw others early in the morning, and began calling, the bird at camp would answer and wake us up.