them in the perpetual-snow-clad regions and among the glaciers. Again, nearly all the accounts of these birds attacking sheep have come from districts which are situated many miles from the regions described by many writers as the kea's home.

At the present day however, the bird does not seem to be a dweller of the glacier regions only, and, although it does often frequent these heights, it is most commonly found about the forest-limit.

Dr. L. Cockayne describes, in a communication to me, its habitat as follows: “I have observed the kea in various parts of the Southern Alps, from the Humboldt Mountains in the south to Kelly's Hill in Westland. Although frequently met with on the open alpine and subalpine hillside, I consider the bird essentially one of the forest-limit, where it may be seen in numbers at the junction of the forest and subalpine meadows, and in the Nothofagus forests at lower levels where such are pierced by river-beds.”

Mr. Taylor White (V) does not consider the bird one of the forest, for he says, “I remember being astonished on reading of the kea living in the forest, for I never, even during the severest winter, saw it perched on trees.” However, in spite of this, as early as 1862, Haast (I, b) saw one in a tree near Lake Wanaka, and since then they have been often seen perching in the forest.

I have on several occasions seen the kea both on the Birdwood Range and Mount Torlesse, and each time the bird has been about the forest-limit. Though I have often seen them at an altitude of 5,000 ft., I have never seen them above that height. Twice I have seen them perching in the Fagus forest—once in July, 1903, in a bush behind the Glenthorne Homestead, and while camping for several days near the source of the Avoca River we continually saw them flying in and out of the forest, about 500 ft. above us.

Seeing these birds so low down in summer rather upsets the statements of many writers who say that the keas only come from higher altitudes in severe weather, for both times when I saw the birds at low altitudes it was in midsummer, and the weather was warm and fine. They come much lower than some people suppose. Potts (N) says that they have been seen at Hororata, near the Malvern Hills, and Mr. G. Rutherford states that nearly every year keas have been shot in the Thirteen-mile Bush, which is situated near the foot of Porter's Pass.

At first I thought that perhaps the keas had learnt to live at lower altitudes so as to be near the sheep, but the fact that before the kea had learnt to kill sheep—namely, between 1861