BIRD LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 108, 8 May 1923, Page 4

BIRD LIFE

POSITION IN NEW ZEALAND

AN INTERESTING ADDRESS.

Interesting information about the bird life of New Zealand was given by Mr. J. (3. Myers in the course of a lecture under the auspices of the Workers' Educational Association.

Mr. Myers said he ivould take his hearers back to the close of the Mesozoic era, when New Zealand formed the south-west extension' of a great continent stretching north to Fiji and New Guinea At that time that portion which was to survive as New Zealand when all the' remaining links sank beneath the surface •% the ocean was colonised by most of its land birdsj or, rather, by most of the ancestors of the birds which later were to constitute the most extraordinary avine population on the face of the globe. "The birds then were the highest evolved inhabitants of this isolated land," said Mr. Myers. "It i was a heavily-wooded country ; the bilds ! and the forest grew in beauty side by side. This • ancient New Zealand was above all things a land of birds—no other mass of land so large has remained isolated so long; in no other area of any considerable size have birds achieved terrestrial domination. Such an unusual state of affairs was certain to lead to extraordinary results. The birds had no natural enemies, except, among their own numbersj and birds of prey were singularly few. . . . The only cloud in the sky was a gigantic eagle to which our largest eaglea of the present day were as sparrow-hawks. It seems highly probuble that the extinction of. the old New Zealand eagle was a_ direct consequence of the extermination of the huge bir3s on which it preyed, by the Maoris or their predecessors. The direct result of the isolation under which they lived and their freedom from the boasts of prey which in all other countries constitute a terrible danger to bird life, and maintain the flying efficiency of birds at an Al level, was that the birds of New Zealand, particularly the larger kinds which coujd h'net an ample supply of food o« or near the ground, gradually lost the power of flight." After referring to the birds and their association with the. Maoris, Mr. Myers proceded: "Then came the white man, and every influence which he brought into the new country was injurious to the birds. The story of the colonisation of JN'ew Zealand is as tragic in every detaiT as the conquest of Peru. By the ■'cut-hack-burn' policy, tho birds have not only been driven out, but the haunts and environment to which they have bej come adapted in a marvellous manner during ages . of unparalleled isolation ! hays beeu swept clean away. Dogs,. cats, and pigs were let loo»e to find an easy prey on birds which had not iearn«d to fear. Collectors of bird skins, early realising the unique character of the birds of New Zealand, shot and exported thousands of those which escaped to the untouched hinterland. . . ." Mr. Myers said that these practices had some slight justification, but said that I there was to follow a crime for which ' there could be no justification. He referred to the deliberate introduction into New Zealand of the moai blood-thirety carnivorous animate of Europe—stoats, weasels, and ferrets. The trouble they were brought to combat, the rabbit peat, had been admittedly a great, one, but the weasels and stoats carried death to the feathered population. The speaker referred to the satisfactory protective lawa that had been introduced, but regretted that in some parts of the country they were being ignored. The speaker referred to several other points, and •*as listened to with clots attention.