IMPORTED GAME BIRDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 90, 17 April 1929, Page 15

IMPORTED GAME BIRDS.

MALLARD A FAILURE

PHKASAXTS ]\( I!KAS!X<

Several speakers at last light's mceti'! tlie Auckland Acfliinat isat ion Society declared that the importation n! mallard duck had been a failure. Most members attributed this to the very dry season. Hundreds of skeletons, it was stated, could bo seen lvinir in the dried-tip swamps. Other speakers o nv ,, examples ot birds liberated at various places, and though neither fed nor housed were ipnte tame, and would not leave the spot. It was thought that the only way to prevent, this was to import adult wild mallard from Knglaml and liberate them immediatetlv on arrival.

i lie meeting decided to postpone the further importation of mallards for a year. Meanwhile stock birds would be liberated on sanctuaries at. the close of this sea son, the further policy in reiranl to mallards to depend on observation of those birds.

A vote (if £S.") 0 for the breeding of pheasants was passed. It was decided to rear 1500 birds for 10.*',0, and have 150 cock birds kept for liberation at the end of the season.

A* a result of sanctuaries bcinir declared, pheasants were "retting a fair chance, which they had not had for ten years, declared the president. Mr. T\ E. McKcnzie. Reports from various place* stated that pheasants had been seen there recently for the first time for years.