Saddleback Colony Found Near Stewart Island

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27575, 4 February 1955, Page 8

Saddleback Colony Found Near Stewart Island

“The Press” Special Service

DUNEDIN, February 3. A species of bird which has vanished from the South Island has been found flourishing on South Cape Island, a few miles from Stewart Island, by an expedition which has returned to Dunedin. The bird is the saddleback, rather like a starling, which has a chestnut saddle on its back and bright orange wattles at the base of its beak. The expedition, headed by Dr. R. A. Falla, director of the Dominion Museum, Wellington, found the birds “just flourishing” on the outlying islands off Stewart Island.

As a species, the saddleback, according to Dr. Falla, is extinct in the rest of New Zealand.

The expedition had originally hoped to visit Solander Island and The Snares, but was prevented from doing so by bad westerly weather. However, Dr. Falla said he was just as pleased, as the party had found plenty to occupy themselves with on the small islands off Stewart Island, where bird life, in particular, was thriving. The party went south from Dunedin 10 days ago in the 72ft Dunedin motorcruiser Alert, owned by Mr A. J. Black.

It consisted of Dr. Falla, Mr Thane Riney, an American ecologist working with the wild life division, Miss B. A. Holloway, and Mr R. K. Dell, of the Dominion Museum, and Mr Black and his crew. An intensive collecting team consisting of Miss Holloway and Mr Dell specialised in the collecting of. invertebrates, of which they brought back many specimens, a large number of which have not previously been reported. They took samples of beetles and insects of all types, and snails. The islands they visited have not previously been subjected to intensive collecting, so their harvest was rich. “No two of the islands we landed on are exactly the same,” said Dr. Falla. “There are differences in altitude, aspect, and so on and in accidents of introduction, so each one is unique.” . Collections were made not only of invertebrates but also of vegetation. These will be studied later by botanists in Wellington. Dr. Falla himself concentrated mainly on a study of bird life, both land and marine, and on seals.