The Kea: a New Zealand problem
The Kea: A New Zealand Problem
By G•R•Marriner
THE KEA:
A NEW ZEALAND PROBLEM
DEDICATED
(with permission of Mrs. Hutton)
to
The late CAPTAIN F. W. HUTTON, F.R.S.,
in humble appreciation of his eminent service in many departments of New Zealand Zoology;
in warm admiration of the proof he furnished, in character and utterances, that pure religion and true science may keep close company;
and
in deep gratitude for personal encouragement and help in the writers’s early scientific study.
Our youth amid its charms to roam;
O’er scenes more fair, serenely wild,
Not often summer’s glory smiled;
When flecks of cloud, transparent, bright,
No alabaster hall so white—
Thing lightly in a luminous dome
Of sapphire—seemed to float and sleep
Far in the front of its blue steep;
And almost awful, none the less
For its liquescent loveliness,
Behind them sunk just o’er the hill
The deep abyss, profound and still—
The so immediate Infinite;
That yet emerged the same, it seemed
In hue divine and melting balm,
In many a lake whose crystal calm
Uncrisped, unwrinkled, scarcely gleamed;
Where sky above and lake below
Would like one sphere of azure show,
Save for the circling belt alone,
The softly-painted purple zone
Of mountains—bathed where nearer seen
In sunny tints of sober green,
With velvet darks of woods between,
All glassy glooms and shifty sheen;
While here and there, some peak of snow
Would o’er their tenderer violet lean,
And yet within this region, fair
With wealth of waving woods—these glades
And glens and lustre-smitten shades,
.......
Ay! in this realm of seeming rest,
What sights you meet and sounds of dread!
—ALFRED DOMETT.
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The Sheepkillers.
THE KEA:
A NEW ZEALAND PROBLEM
INCLUDING
A FULL DESCRIPTION OF THIS VERY INTERESTING BIRD, ITS HABITAT
AND WAYS, TOGETHER WITH A DISCUSSION OF THE
THEORIES ADVANCED TO EXPLAIN ITS
SHEEP-KILLING PROPENSITIES.
By
GEORGE R. MARRINER, F.R.M.S.
MEMBER OF THE AUSTRALASIAN ORNITHOLOGICAL UNION.
CURATOR, PUBLIC MUSEUM, WANGANUI, NEW ZEALAND.
LATE ASSISTANT IN BIOLOGY, CANTERBURY COLLEGE. CHRISTCHURCH. NEW ZEALAND.
_%C2%B7_Marriner_%C2%B7_061.jpg)
A KEA FLEDGLING
MARRINER BROS. & CO., PRINTERS & PUBLISHERS.
CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND,
1908
AUTHOR’S NOTE,
To write a book about a bird may seem to some a needless task. That depends more on the bird than on the writer. The New Zealand mountain parrot we call the Kea presents a topic of importance from many points of view. For half a century he has been accused of being a sheep-killer. That accusation, persistently and vehemently made, has drawn the attention of the scientific and non-scientific alike. For a parrot of but average proportions to develop a furious carnivorous propensity is zoologically remarkable enough. When this alleged habit is held to be the cause of heavy losses to the sheep-farming industry of a country it demands study also on other than zoological grounds. Naturally enough, much has been written already. For fifty years the Kea has been a veritable Ishmael, and has been treated on the principle: give a bird a bad name and shoot him. Not all that has been told of him, however, is true. Much has been wildest conjecture; part is but colourably accurate; all, until lately, was more or less uncertain. There seemed to he room for a careful and detailed examination of the subject. Such an examination is here attempted.
The writer cannot claim that he is quite alone in either the matter or the method of his investigation. After he had begun his work upon the sheep-killing problem, he found that Professor W. B. Benham, D.Sc., F.R.S., of Otago University, had entered upon the same inquiry, and (as the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute show) had reached a similar conclusion on similar data. To Dr. Benham the writer’s thanks are gratefully tendered for much general help given.
For aid in securing the photographs reproduced he desires to thank Dr. L. Cockayne, F.L.S., the Revs. A. B. Chappell and H. E. Newton, Messrs. Harold Larkin, G. E. Mannering, A. P. Harper, R. P. Freville, Malcolm Ross, E. F. Stead and F. Field.
Expeditions into the Kea country have been made possible by the ungrudging kindness of Mrs. Finlayson (late of Glenthorne Station) and Mrs. Murchison (of Lake Coleridge Station). Under this head is especially noteworthy the hearty and splendid assistance of Mr. R. Urquhart, the manager of Mt Algidus Station.
Thanks are also due to Mr. E. Waite, Mr. Fougere, Mr. A. E. Currie and Miss Sapsford.
In preparation of material, revision of manuscript and correction of proofs the Rev. A. B. Chappell, M.A., has rendered invaluable aid.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
| 17 |
| 28 |
| 35 |
| 46 |
| 60 |
| 72 |
| 83 |
| 97 |
| 106 |
| 113 |
| 116 |
| 123 |
| 135 |
| 145 |
| 148 |
| 150 |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Frontispiece: The Sheepkillers |
Kea Country: Up the Wilberforce River |
18 |
Kea Country: Boundary Creek |
20 |
Kea Country: Glenthorne Homestead |
22 |
Kea Country |
23 |
Kea Country: West of Dividing Range |
26 |
The Kea |
29 |
Keas’ Heads |
30 |
Keas: Shape and Appearance |
32 |
The Kea: Museum Specimen |
33 |
The Kea’s Head |
34 |
The Kea: On the Lookout |
36 |
The Kea: Hunting for Insect Larvæ |
38 |
Mountain Daisy |
40 |
Mountain Lilies |
42 |
Maori Onion |
44 |
Jack’s Hill and Chimera Creek |
47 |
Natural Entrance into a Kea Run |
49 |
Natural Entrance into a Kea Run |
51 |
Kea Eggs |
55 |
Nestling Keas |
56 |
Nestling Kea |
57 |
Keas at Play |
61 |
A Kea on Ball Glacier |
63 |
Ready for Mischief |
66 |
Up to Mischief |
69 |
Mr James McDonald |
71 |
A Sheep Killed by Keas |
84 |
Close View of a Wound |
89 |
A Sheep Killed by Keas |
92 |
Close View of Wound |
94 |
The Vegetable Sheep |
99 |
The Meat Gallows |
103 |
Humerus of Sheep |
111 |
Kea Country: Arthur Valley looking down from McKinnon Pass |
114 |
Kea Country: Clinton River and Mt. McKenzie |
117 |
Kea Country: Lake Ada and Arthur Valley |
118 |
Kea Country: Clinton Valley looking down from McKinnon Pass |
120 |
Kea Country: In Pursuit of the Kea in Summer–Fording the Avoca River |
125 |
Kea Country: Author's Camp |
127 |
Kea Country: In Pursuit of the Kea in Winter |
128 |
Keas’ Heads |
133 |
Bones of the Kea: Found in the Chatham Islands |
141 |
Map of the South Island, New Zealand, showing the Kea’s Distribution |
150 |
O bird of twinkling eye and plumage gay,
Soaring in glorious heights beyond our ken,
Threading the branching beauty of the glen,
What clouds have fall’n upon thy shining way!
Preying thyself, thou art become a prey,
A hovering terror feared and cursed of men;
For faithful shepherd needs must smite again
Whate’er his harmless flock would tear and slay.
A madness like thine alpine torrent’s own,
Shrouding thee in the mists of lowering hate,
Hurries thee to the shade of nether gloom,
Dashes thee from thy bush-clad mountain throne
To deep disgrace and ignominious fate,
And seals thee with irrevocable doom.
—Albert B. Chappell.
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This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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