[Maori: from the cry of the bird.] The Green Alpine Parrot of New Zealand (Nestor notabilis), which destroys sheep in order to prey upon their kidney-fat.
It was originally frugivorous, but had become before 1881 a pest to sheep-farmers in the Southern Alps of N. Z.
1862. J. Von Haast, Explor. Head Waters Waitaki, in Geol. Westland (1879), 36 (Morris). A number of large green alpine parrots … the kea of the natives.
1871. Nature, IV. 489/1. The Kea … may be seen and heard in certain localities amidst the wild scenery of the Southern Alps in the middle island of New Zealand.
1883. Standard, 7 Sept., 5/2. The rabbit, the sparrow, and the kea are getting so numerous that the grain growers, the orchard owners, and the squatters are almost in despair.
1895. Times, 20 Dec., 13/1. The kea of New Zealand is a mountain parrot, naturally frugivorous, which has developed a fatal taste for mutton.
