These birds, common on the high ranges, are not always to be found in the same localities, but appear to migrate from place to place in small flocks of a dozen or a score. Shepherds who have been for some time in charge of sheep on the higher ranges in Southland, say that the Keas attack sheep even when they are being gathered or driven along, invariably selecting fat sheep as the objects, and one particular point of attack. After a few days, during which the shepherds have to be on the alert, they disappear and are not again seen for days or even weeks in the same locality.

They suppose that these birds formerly fed chiefly on berries and the large white grubs abounding in mossy vegetation on the hills; and that after the country was stocked they, first by feeding on maggots and insects on dead sheep, and afterwards on the dead animals, acquired not only a taste for meat, but also a discrimination of the choice parts. By-and-bye they attacked living sheep, alighting on their backs, where their powerful-hooked upper mandible enabled them quickly to tear open the skin, and gain access to the fat about the kidneys, for which delicacy they appear to have a particular relish; after tearing away and consuming the kidney-fat of one, they flit away to attack another victim.

On some runs the loss from this cause is considerable. The sheep that have been wounded but yet have been strong enough eventually to shake off these birds, or have been otherwise rescued from them, usually pine and die. Many of these have been seen with their intestines torn and protruding from the wound in the back.

Of the probable number of sheep destroyed in this way, some idea may be formed from the facts observed during the last shearing season. Upon one run, on which about 30,000 sheep were shorn, above one hundred were found to have been torn by the Keá, and it was necessary to kill the greatest number of them. On this particular run the annual loss is unusually large. A proportion of the loss is no doubt attributable to the predaceous habits of this bird; for in such a rough country a very large proportion of the sheep that die are never seen, and of those that are discovered, decay will very often have obscured the cause of death.

These parrots frequent the higher ranges of mountains, such as the Takarahaka and Takitimo in Southland, where they are common. On the lower ranges, under 2000 feet, they are only occasionally seen, and up to this time do not usually disturb sheep depasturing below that elevation.