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Distribution.
The kea was first found in the Murihiku district, where it was discovered by Mr. W. Mantell in 1856. I had a great difficulty in finding out where that district is, but on inquiring, Mr. D. Barron, Chief Surveyor of the Dunedin Lands and Survey Department, informed me that the Murihiku district embraces from the Mataura River south and westward, including practically all Southland.
At first the tea's area of distribution was thought to be very limited, but as soon as men travelled back into the mountainous country of the South Island it was found that the area was much wider than at first supposed. A few years after its discovery it was found in the mountains of Otago, Southland, and in Canterbury as far north as the Rangitata Gorge. In 1859 Dr. Haast (I, b) found it in the Mount Cook region, and a year later—1860—Sir W. Buller (J, b) saw it in the Rangitata Gorge. In 1861-62 Sir James Hector noticed it in most of the snow mountains of Otago, during his survey, and in the same year Dr. Haast (I, a) saw it on the Godley Glacier. As early as 1865 he found it a long way above its supposed northern limit—namely, at Browning Pass, at the source of the Wilber-force River; and two years later he saw it still further north, near Arthur's Pass, on the West Coast Road. In 1868 they were common around the lakes which lie around the borderline of Otago and Canterbury, and ten years later Sir W. Buller speaks of them as being plentiful in Southland.
Dr. Cockayne, in a communication to me, states that his brother-in-law, Mr. A. Blakely, shot a kea in Arthur's Pass in June, 1881; and in 1882 Potts (N) reports that keas were known at Grassmere, West Coast Road; Lochinvar Station, North Canterbury; and at the head-waters of the Esk and Hurunui Rivers—that is, at the northern boundary of Canterbury.
In 1883 Sir W. Buller (J, R), quoting a letter from Mr. Shrimpton, says that the kea's area of distribution did not extend north of the Rakaia River. However, as both Dr. Haast (I, d) and Mr. Potts (N) had already published records of
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their being north of this limit, the former at Arthur's Pass and the latter at Grassmere, Lochinvar, and Hurunui, it shows that this statement was too limited.
In 1888 Mr. W. W. Smith (U) says, “When Sir W. Buller published his last paper on the kea five years ago he gave the ranges on the upper reaches of the Rakaia River as its extreme northern limit. During the last three winters it has visited the ranges above the Otira Gorge, thus showing its range to be extending north.” Mr. Smith, like Sir W. Buller, had evidently not seen the reports of Haast (I, d), who saw it on Arthur's Pass twenty-three years before; and I think that the record of Mr. A. Blakely, who shot one there in 1881, as well as the report of Mr. Potts that it was known at Hurunui as early as 1882, shows that the kea's northern limit was very much beyond the line stated by Mr. Smith.
Mr George Rutherford states that in 1885 it was known at Benmore Run, near Porter's Pass, West Coast Road, and Mr. Bond (Q) reports that it was seen on the Mount Algidas Station about that time.
For some years the stations around Hanmer seemed to be its northern limit, but in 1903 Mr. Edward Kidson, Christchurch, in company with Messrs. F. G. Gibbs and H. M. Bryant, Brightwater, Nelson, saw one at close quarters on Mount Robert, near Lake Rotoiti, about forty miles south of the City of Nelson. Mr. H. M. Bryant, who has done a fair amount of mountaineering in the Nelson Province, says that he had never seen one before, and the late owner of the station at Mount Robert told him that it was the first time that a kea had been seen on his station.
Through the kindness of Mr. R. Kidson I am able to record two other instances in the Nelson Province. In 1904 a kea was caught by Mr. A. G. Hammond at Appleby, thirteen miles south-west of the City of Nelson; and in the same year Mr. S. T. Rowling caught one at Riwaka, a few miles north of Motueka. This is at present the most northern limit where a kea has been found, and the distance between its southern and northern limit is only about four hundred miles.
Through the kindness of Mr. T. E. Currie, Christchurch, I have been able to obtain some reports of its presence in the Marlborough Province, where it has been almost unknown. In May, 1906, on the Tarndale Station, at a place half-way up the Saxton River, some miles north of the homestead, one afternoon about 4 o'clock, Mr. Currie, with eleven other men, saw a kea flying across. As it passed over it gave the well-known kea cry. Though these birds are fairly common around the homestead, they had rarely been seen so far north. Again,
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in January, 1906, at the head of the Waihopai River, at a place known as the Glazebrook Whare, near the Blue Mountains, Hellersden Station, farther north still, he saw a kea again. It was about 8 o'clock in the evening, and therefore almost impossible to see it, but as the bird gave its peculiar cry there seems little doubt that it was a kea. One had been seen near that spot in 1905, but never before. The only other report of its appearance in Marlborough is from Mr. F. R. O'Brian, who states that he has seen one only thirty miles from Blenheim.
They appear to extend westward almost, if not quite, to the coast-line. They have been seen at Koiterangi, near Hokitika; at Mahitahi, near Bruce Bay; and Captain Bollons informed me that in June, 1906, he saw one flying along the beach at Bruce Bay itself. It has also been found in several other parts of Westland, for in his report on the survey of Westland Dr. Bell (W) states that it was common on the mountains, and especially around Browning Pass. They may almost be around the sounds of western Otago and Southland, but at present I can find no records of their presence there.
The area of the kea's distribution is therefore confined to the mountainous country of the South Island of New Zealand, from Southland in the south to Tasman Bay in the north, from the coast-line in the west to the limit of the high country in the east. It is about four hundred miles in length, and about one hundred miles in breadth at its widest part.