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Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 108, 8 May 1909, Page 13

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(For The Post.) The "morepork" owl has a good friend in Mr. R. Marsh, of Pine Island, Auckland province. He takes exception to the notes on owls published in this column on 13th March, and he supplies a eulogy of the "morepork," and points out some of its good qualities. He has hardly grasped the object of the previous notes, which were intended to show that, although owls generally are regarded as birds of ill-omen, the "morepork," apart from its boding cry, has done nothing to bring itself into disfavour. "I have listened to the music of our steadfast friend the 'morepork' for fifty years," he says, "and the song of no other bird gives me half the satisfaction. It is 'hooting, laughing in the forest,' indeed, to the inestimable benefit of every settler. By the destruction of rats and mice, this bird has become of incalculable benefit to farmers. I would make it a criminal offence to injure or destroy a 'morepork.' It certainly wages war upon small birds, but opinions differ as to the benefit or otherwise of its operations in that respect." "I remember having seen an extraordinary encounter between a 'morepork' and a kingfisher," he adds. "It is hardly correct to say that 1 actually saw the affair ; but early on* morning, at the root of a tree, on the Wade River, about thirty years ago, I picked up a 'morepork' and a kingfisher locked in a deadly embrace. They were both dead, but they had died only a few minutes before I found them. Apparently, the kingfisher was on a perch when tho 'morepork' attacked him. The 'morepork' hud him in a murderous clasp, both claws being in his breast and round his back. The kingfibher must have met the onslaught with his bill held out rigidly like a bayonet, as it had gouu right through the owl's head, entering by one eye and coming out by the other, and protruding for half an inch. I regret that I did not have the birds stulfed in the striking position in which I found them after the fatal encounter." A sportsman at the Thames, Auckland, has a word to say in regard to the "morepork." He is very angry with the Otago Acclimatisation Society for having introduced the little grey owls from Europe to deal with the email birds in this country. He believes that it is another item in the long list of mistakes made in connection with acclimatisation operations. He says that these owls are not likely to discriminate between obnoxious English birds and New Zealand's beautiful native birds. Whatever small bird the owl sees first he will appropriate for his meal, and the victim is just as likely to be a fantail, a tomtit or a robin as a s-parrow or any other English bird. Nearly all native birds are strictly protected from the "attacks of human beings, but there is no means of protecting them against these owls, which he classes with stoats and weasels, "and goodness knows what other vermin." He then sings the praise of the "morepork," which he describes as a "good little bird," which eats rats and mice, but not smal! native birds, and which, he says, is worth scores of imported owLs, Mr. R. M'Nab, Minister of Lands and Agriculture in the la&L Parliament, has told me that some native birds are found in large numbers amongst foreign trees. He has carried out extensive forestplanting operations at his Knapdale estate, near Gore, Southland, and he has noted the appearance there of large numbers of several species of native birds, notably tomtits, fantails, silvereyes, wrens, and the two migratory cuckoos. They seem to like the pine and other trees that have sprung up, and, apparently, they taka as much delight in the shelter of those trees as in the shelter of the flora of their native land. The fantails and tomtits, of course, are very friendly with the human residents. The tits frequently fly into the house. One, especially, makes itself at home inside, flitting about and often resting for a time on the typewriter. The observation is an important one, as it shows that at least a few species of the native avifauna do not" depend entirely on native trees, and that native birds are likely to be attracted by introduced trees. Within historical aimes there has never been any native bush near Knapdale. Mr. M'Nab states thai ho recollects, when a boy, being taken out to see a white heron' which had arrived at the homestead. One of its wings had been broken. The visitor was treated as an invalid, and was fed and cared tor, and the injured limb was tied up. As soon as the bird had recovered it went away, but regularly, for years afterwards, it returned to the homestead at one season of the year, as if it wished to show its gratitude for the treatment it had received. Mr. C. A. Coppins, of Ponsonby, Aucic land, states that he is acquainted with the cricket pihareinga, which has been described by Archdeacon Grace and Mr C W. Adams. When he was a boy in Marlborough, he hunted these creatures m their hiding-places, under stones. He was in both Nelson and Marlborouch since Mr. Adams was Commissioner of Crown Lands in the latter district, and he says that the crickets are quite as plentiful there now as they were' in former times referred to by Mr. Adams. Mr Coppins has frequently heard them singing m the open spaces about Auckland city. A few* evenings ago, when he vvas standing in a shop in Queen-street, he was surprised to see a cricket hop in. He infers from this that they are very plentiful in the Auckland province. He has heen told that they are very destructive to clothing, but he has not, o»tamed any evidence in support of the indictment against these early settlers in the colony.

Sir Leopold M'Olintock, the Arctic- explorer, who died recently, was once giving an account of his experiences amid tho ico fields of the North. "We certainly would have travelled much farther," ho explained, "had not our dogs given out at a, critical moment." "But," exclaimed a lady, who had been listening very intently, "I thought that the Eskimo dogs were perfectly tireless creatures." Sir Leopold's faco wore a whimsically gloomy expression as he replied, "I— cr — speak in a culinary sense, miss." Mr. W. Wilson, Revans-street, Newtown, Wellington, N.Z., writes: — "My liver has given me a lot of trouble. Not long ago I had liver blotches all over my face and tried all sorts of things, bub obtained no relief. On the advice of a friend I tried Chamberlain's Tablets, and before I had taken two bottles the blotches had disappeared from my face, and I havo not been troubled since." — Advfc.