MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 May 1940, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

KEA (A DRIPPING NOSE).

(Recorded by J.H.S., or Palmerston North, for the “Times-Age.”)

The Kea, a dark green parrot, is really a dweller of the mountain ranges, nesting on the ledge of the cliff side. Originally it lived on insects and the berries of mountain shrubs. When snow drove them to the lowlands for food, they were seen to be poor walkers, and hopped along aided by flapping wings. Their cries sound like cats calling for food, and sometimes they scream like a woman in terror —like the Weka they seek' the company of men in camps, and become mischievous, carrying away domestic articles. Since the coming of sheep, their numbers have increased and their habits of life have changed, the birds having developed a liking for flesh, starting with the kidney fat of a living sheep, and ending with its dead carcase. The taste for this began with the carcase of a new born lamb or a dead sheep, and some think it arose from the tasty morsel of flesh and fat on thousands of sheep' skins hanging on the fences to dry. A bonus of 3s per beak has been paid by farmers.

On the Southern Alps there is a “vegetable sheep,” a- strange cactuslike growth resembling a resting sheep. It shelters crowds of insects, and in plucking for these it may be that the Kea developed his carnivorous taste for the real animal.