Page:The Kea, a New Zealand problem (1909).pdf/96

92 knees, the Kea picking away at its back and the others watching as if waiting for a feed. I went up to the sheep, after throwing stones at the birds. When I got up to the sheep, it had two holes in its back, and the kidney fat had been eaten, but the kidneys were lying bare in the sheep. The entrails were pulled out through the hole in the back. The sheep was not dead, but had to be killed.”



Mr. A. S. Smith, of Fairlie, writes:—“The first occasion on which I actually saw a sheep killed was one time while mustering. I noticed two sheep that had been passed some little distance, and while in the act of hunting a dog for the sheep, a Kea flew down to the back of a sheep, which made headlong down the hill with the bird all the while on its back. After running some little distance, the beast stumbled and fell; then the bird rose to its wings, and the sheep continued its race down hill, evidently much terrified. The bird then flew on to the sheep’s back again while it ran. This occurred, I should say, three or four times, before the