WHITE HERON SHOT.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20909, 17 July 1933, Page 5

WHITE HERON SHOT.

An unfortunate act which may have been due to carelessness or, and this is more likely, to wanton dcstructiveness, has robbed the Taieri of an interesting visitor and a very rare bird—a white egret, which is more commonly known as the white heron, or, tc the Maoris, kotuku (states Saturday's "Otago Daily Times"). The white heron was first observed in New Zealand by Captain Cook during his second voyage, and subsequently it was noted in various parts but it was always a rare bird. About 1870 a surveyor named Moeller discovered its only known breeding place in New Zealand on the banks of the Waitangituna stream, near Okarito. The New Zealand sub-species differs from the Australian form in being considerably larger, the wing measurement being about 43 centimetres in the New Zealand form against 38.5 in the Australian. Stray p 'rs of individual birds have been seen in all parts of the North, South, Chatham, and Stewart Islands, but ; seldom does the white heron appear in any locality that "rare as the kotuku" has passed into a proverb among the Maoris, and, in the North Island, it is said to occur only once in a lifetime. In this case the bird was found headless on a fence line by Ranger David, of the Otago Acclimatisation Society. It had been seen about Waihola for a year, and, as the head was missing, it had probably been shot.