REASON OR INSTINCT IN THE KEA ? [TO THZ EDITOR
Of TRH "SPICTATOZ."] Sin, I suppose few people credit birds with much reasoning power. Yet the sheep farmers in the South of New Zealand have learnt, to their cost, that a bird can exert something which looks very like reason. Among the high mountains far south is found a handsome, slender, brown parrot, of medium size, remarkable for a very sharp, strong beak. It is known as the " kea." This is the Maori name, and is onomatopoeic, and should be pronounced " kay-ah," after the harsh, long-drawn bi-syllabic cry of the bird. It is very irquisitive. So, when its haunts were first invaded by the shepherds, and it first saw curious erections of three long sticks of timber, and dangling from the cross- bar that very novel object, a freshly butchered sheep, it naturally proceeded to investigate. It liked the odour. The delicate white kidney fat looked tempting, the bird tasted it, and apparently liked the taste. It often came again.. Then having a good bump of " locality "—and having perhaps watched from a distance the curious process of butchering a sheep—it proceeded to locate the kidney in the living animaL Then alighting on the sheep, it tore open its back, and devoured its favourite delicacy alive, fatally for the poor sheep. Great numbers of sheep were lost in this way. Ab one time the Government offered a bounty of a shilling a head for these keas, and large numbers were shot by the shepherds and others. Fortunately the bird, though not very rare, is not very numerous. This harrowing exercise of bird-reason is commemorated in a remarkably powerful painting in one oi our little Colonial picture-galleries.—I am, Sir, &c.,
C. HURTER BROWN-
Long Look-out, Nelson, New Zealand.
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