Suspicion fell at once on the Black-back Gull (Larus dominicanus), and the Harrier Hawk (Circus Gouldi), but it was soon pointed out that it was only the sheep of the alpine country that were attacked, while the gulls and hawks scoured the plains as well as the mountains.
It was a well-known fact that the gulls would pick at the eyes of a very young lamb, or even of a sheep, when it had fallen, but they had never been known to attack the sheep over the loin, in the manner of the unknown culprit.
Wild dogs were next suggested, but they were then practically unknown, and the fact that there were never any injuries found on the sheep, except those on the loin went to prove that the sheep could not have been pulled down and worried by dogs.
About this time the suggestion that the Kea might be the culprit was strengthened by the fact that the bird had been seen picking the refuse around the meat gallows.
Some poisoned mutton was spread out in a likely place, and soon the Keas were observed to come down and devour it so greedily that in a short time their dead bodies were lying around their unfinished meal.
This experiment gave the clue as to the direction in which investigation must be made in order to solve the mystery; and at once Mr. Campbell (of Lake Wanaka Station) ordered his men to keep a sharp look-out when working in high country. Not long after this, these suspicions were substantiated by the observations of Mr. James McDonald, at that time head shepherd at Lake Wanaka Station, and now a sheep-farmer at Dipton, Southland. Through the kindness of Professor Benham, of Dunedin, I am able to give Mr. McDonald’s own description of the first recorded case of sheep killing by Keas. He thus described what he saw:
“I do not know whether I was the first to see the Kea attack sheep, but I was the first to report it to Mr. Henry Campbell, of Wanaka Station. . . . . In 1868 my orders were to go all over the run after the snowfall and see that the sheep were evenly distributed over the ground, that no hill or spur had more sheep on it than it could well carry.
