THE NEW ZEALAND OWL. "Pluris eis porci" eat nomen, sed nominis hujus Causs, qaod his verbis stridere nocto solent. —Parod. in Ovid. Fast. vi., 139.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3403, 12 June 1868, Page 4

THE NEW ZEALAND OWL. "Pluris cis porci" eat nomen, sed nominis hujus Causs, qaod his verbis stridere nocto solent. — Parod. in Ovid. Fast. vi., 139.

To the Editor of the Daily Southern Ciohs. Sir,— From Mr. Wayte's objurgation pronounced ■gainst the New Zealand owl in his letter to the Southern Cross of the 21st May, it might be inferred that he had derived bis knowledge of the habits of this bird from Mr. Ovid's fables .rather than from 1 his own personal observation. Unlike the Roman poet, however, instead of bringing against the morepork a multiplicity of charges, he contents himself with one, — averring that " the preservation of this bird is incompatible witli the introduction of small birds into this colony," inasmuch as since the latter hare been imported/ he has shown a decided preference for a feathered over a furred dint." Has Mr. Wayte arrived at thin conclusion from personal observation ? I should think not j for an examination of the pellets which this bird in common with all the owl ipeciei emits from its' stomach, and which are to be mat with in the rarious places of its retreat in the bush (for it is not a nidifying bird), would have completely undeceived him. As these ejections are found to be composed chiefly of the skeletons of rats and mice, there is no doubt that these noxious animals form its favourite food. The morepork is known to be a great destroyer of the larger kinds of insects, such as crickets and grasshoppers, and what are commonly called "Maori bugs;" but that it preys to any extent on small birds (in this propensity differing from all the congeners 'of its specie*) is proved to be controverted by an examination of its ejected boluses, and is therefore an asseveration totally unfounded. Let not the owl of New Zealand be blamed for the faults of others. Our little imported songsters fall a prey, not to the morepork, but to the two most deadly enemies of the feathered race in this colony, the Norway rat and the bo called wild cat. In its destruction of the feathered tribe, the Norwegian or Hanoverian rat is only surpassed by the cat. The latter, haying, through the carelessness of several of our settlers, been allowed to ramble away into the bush, has become a wild animal, formidable in number, and unceasing in its attacks upon all sorts of birds. It is justly considered by English gamekeepers to be the most destructive of all vermin. It is erroneous to imagine that the wild cat is a destroyer of rats : Bhe will trouble them but little, as long as birds are abundant ; for anyone who has been in the habit of keeping cats must have obserred that a cat which is continually on the 100k r out for birds rarely if ever employs herself in catching mice or rats. These certainly show a preference for a feathered over a furred diet. The rat, though not such an active animal as the cat, is more formidable by reason of its numbers. Unable to mount trees with the same facility as the feline race, there are comparatively few that it cannot ascend. Its destructiveness is proverbial. Now I maintain that, even if the morepork were a destroyer of birds, it should still be projected on accoupt of the great havoc it causes among mice and, rats ; for no one will deny that these form its principal food. Let it be therefore .hypothecated that the rat is more destructive in proportion, as it is *;more prolific ani,mal than the morepork: yet if the ravages it at present commits, not only among our birds,' but also in our cornfields, be so enormous whilst, its greatest enemy is in existence, how greatly will its numerical strength increase, and how much more dreadful will be its depredations, when its old andjonly enemy, the New Zealand ow), has been exterminated. What " Waterton" observes of the barn owl may, mutatis mutandis, be applied to its New Zealand couun. H« says ; " When farmers complain that the barn owl destroys the eggs of their pigeons, they lay the saddle' on the wrong horse. They ought to put it,, on the rats. Formerly I could get .very few young pigeons until the rats were excluded effectually from the dovecot. Since that took placed 'it has produced a great abundance^ every year,though the barn owls frequent it, .and are encouraged all around it. The barn owl merely resorts to' it for repose and concealment." ■ ' r If the owl of, New Zealand be considered 'a predatory, he, at aueb, at all events, is a most useful Urd, confining bis depredations soleljjio attacks upon the enemiesfof the feathered race. If the Acclimatisation Society "persist in persecuting this, innocuous and beautiful little owl, the only owl of New Zealand, they will soon find to their cost that the Hanoverian rat will speedily annihilate their imported songstei*. and will discover when t«o late that they have cruelly and unjustly exterminated their best friend. J. H. Ainsworih. Whangarei Heads, June 1, 1868.

A Plats- Proposal— "When Dr. Johnson asked the widow Porter to be his wife, he told her c»ndidly that he was of mean extraction, that he had" no money, and that he had had an uncle hanged. The widow replied that she cared nothing for his parentage, that she had no money herself, and, though she had not had a relative hanged, she had fifty who deserred hanging. 80 they made a match of it. „ In a copy, of the North Chin<t Herald, which a correspondent has- favoured us with," there is an account of the Shanghai Autumn Rage Meeting. The sports extended orer four d»yi», and a great m*ny races were run, the principal performers being howerer ponies. Some of the events *re curiously named:— There are the Celestial Cup, the Misericordia, and the Native Struggle, ,'fhe names of several of the owner* haT» also a' Tery comic sound, as ,for inntanoe, Lord Noseooze, Mr.' Idonohoo, Mr. Fungus Mr. Simpleton, Mr. Fairoffer, and' Mr. Mala Boos.- London Sporting Lift. IJ ,