CHAPTER VI.
EARLY RECORDS.
Like a black hawk swooping
I shall whirl upon the Southern Island,
Sweep it with my name as with a tempest,
Overrun it like a play of sunlight,
Sigh across it like a flame, till Terror
Runs before me shrieking!
It was not until about ten years after the discovery of the Kea that the bird began to acquire the bad habit that has since been its downfall and can end only in its complete extermination. From being one of the least known of our avifauna, its name soon became a by-word throughout the Dominion, and its specific cognomen (notabilis) became only too appropriate.
When killing sheep for home consumption, on the Lake Wanaka Station, North-West Otago, in 1867, the shepherds noticed from time to time what they took to be a new disease on the loins of the animals; and during shearing in 1868 these mysterious scars were again observed.
On close examination the supposed disease revealed severe wounds in different stages of healing or festering.
On some sheep there was merely a patch of bare skin, but on others there was either a half-healed wound or a raw patch of festering flesh, while others again had each a large hole torn in the side, from which the entrails were often protruding.
Many a long discussion was held as to who the culprit could be, but no one could thrown any light on the mystery. One man did suggest that the Kea might be the author of the damage, but he was ridiculed so unmercifully that he thought it wise not to repeat his suggestion.
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