Menace To Birds

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 182, 30 April 1941, Page 9

Menace To Birds

Sir, —i was delighted to read in the paper of April 23 that the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Parry, advocates a general destruction of stoats because of the menace they are to native bird life. If New Zealand wishes to keep what few native birds there are left then it must exterminate pot only the stoat but the weasel and polecat as weU, as all three not only attack birds, but hunt for their eggs as well. I once watched a stoat climbing a big fir tree in which there were quite a number of sparrows’ nests. It ran up the different branches to. the nests to suck the eggs or eat the. young. There was a great hue and cry from the little birds. I have also seen a weasel climbing up trees in the. bush. A great many people blame the magpie for the dwindling numbers of native birds. I know that they attack birds but it is only during their nesting season when they are very vicious. The magpies are not bush birds, they live out in the open. I think the few birds that they chase and sometimes kiU is negligible. I watched one chasing a blackbird which escaped into a small bushy tree. The magpie couldn’t possibly get at it and the blackbird wisely stayed there till the magpie flew away in disgust. I hope there will never be a law passed allowing the destruction of these beautiful birds for they are not the cause of the rapid disappearance of our lovely little native birds—l am, etc., BIRD-LOVER. Upper Hutt, April 25.