BIRDS AND NATIVE BUSH

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 46, 23 August 1926, Page 8

BIRDS AND NATIVE BUSH

"Bushman," writing to "The Post" from Kaitoke in reference to the que»" tion, "Is the opossum a pest?" says:—

"I saw an opossum catch a bird and cat it while we watched. I am open to prove to anyone the amount of damage the opossum does to our native bush. Professor Kirk, apparently the only scientific champion of the animal, says the opossum cannot reach the tender shoots, flowers, and fruits. If this gentleman cares to come out this way I will show him something about what opossums can do that will make him hate them' for ever if he cares anything for our native birds and bush. We keep some as pets. On one occasion one caught a mouse and ate it. I have given eggs to our pets, and it is rather amusing to see' how they go for them. Jfow, it is a funny thing, whenever Professor Kirk or the Forestry officials have examined opossums for eggs and feathers it has always been in the trapping season—July and August. Let them try later, and they will find both. Surely they don't expect to find iledgliug feathers and eggs of native birds in the dead of winter. The royalty receivers say they can bo kept down by trapping, which is ridiculous when it is taken into consideration the inaccessible places they have reached. What chance has the kaka or parraUeet got to survive, as they nest in logs and indeed have any of our birds, attacked as they are in the dark? No, let's say good-bye to our native birds and thank the Forestry people and acclimatisation societies for having brought this evil upon us. The latter for introducing them and the former for fostering an animal which is unnatural to our birds and bush and most destructive to both."