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About 1868 it was first observed to attack
living sheep, which had frequently been found with raw and bleeding
wounds on their backs. Since then it is stated that the bird actually
burrows into the living sheep, eating its way down to the kidneys, which
form its special delicacy. As a natural consequence, the bird is being
destroyed as rapidly as possible, and one of the rare and curious
members of the New Zealand fauna will no doubt shortly cease to exist.
The case affords a remarkable instance of how the climbing feet and
powerful hooked beak developed for one set of purposes can be applied to
another altogether different purpose, and it also shows how little real
stability there may be in what appear to us the most fixed habits of
life. A somewhat similar change of diet has been recorded by the Duke of
Argyll, in which a goose, reared by a golden eagle, was taught by its
foster-parent to eat flesh, which it continued to do regularly and
apparently with great relish.[26]
Change of habits appears to be often a result of imitation, of which Mr.


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