WHEN FORESTS GO

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 62, 15 March 1933, Page 4

WHEN FORESTS GO

SO DO THE BIRDS

NATURALISTS LAMENT

After spending some months in tho North Island studying the bird life of the Dominion, Mr. Sydney Porter, a well-known English ornithologist, has just come to Wellington. He had iur tended to go on to the South Island, to Stewart Island, and perhaps to some of New Zealand's antarctic islands to pursue further his studies of bird life, but an unkind fate has intervened. A poisoned leg, a legacy from Fiji, has caused the doctor to prohibit all'walking, for the present at any rate. ; Buefully surveying a pair of crutches leaning up against the wall of his hotel room, Mr. Porter remarked to a "Post" representative that-the study of birds in their natural haunts wasmanifestly impossible : when one could not walk. However, he is optimistic enough to hope that he will be 'able to see Stewart Island before /returning to England, even if he cannot walk about on it when he gets there.

Full of praise for those of the Dominion's scenic beauties which have remained unspoiled by man, Mr. Porter is full of indignation at the ruthless and in many cases quite unnecessary) destruction of the native bush thai has taken place practically, all over the Dominion. "The country will suffer for it some day,;; he said, "for the destruction of the'forest is-bound to affect the rainfall, and more and more of the country will become arid. Hand in hand with the destruction of tho forest naturally goes the diminution of bird life, which is also to be deplored. Your native birds cannot exist without the forests, and with the passing of. the forests go also the birds. Your birds are among the most interesting in the world from an evolutionary point of view. Originally, before man came along, they had few, if any, enemies, for New Zealand had no native animals and but few birds of prey. But that is all altered now. The doom of the majority of the native birds is scaled; civilisation, introduced animals, and the destruction of the forests have seen to that." VALUE OF SANCTUARIES. Mr. Porter expressed appreciation of tho Government's action in constituting such islands as the Little Barrier and Kapiti as bird sanctuaries so as to save some remnants of bird life. It was only on such islands, he remarked, that many of the native birds had any chance of surviving. Several months have been spent by Mr. Porter on the Little Barrier, and Kapiti and other outlying islands have been visited too. "I think I can truthfully say that I have seen every native bird that can still be seen in the North Island," he said. "I have seen the North Island thrush, which is not yet extinct, but it, like the kiwi and some other birds, I am afraid, soon will be." The- huia, in the visitor's opinion, is undoubtedly extinct, but he thinks that possibly the notornis may still exist. Mr. Porter expressed the opinion that the only way to save some of the birds from a not very distant extinction is to replant the bush extensively, and to instil into the rising generation a lovo of the forest and of bird life. "Although the damage done is beyond repair, something might be done before it is too late to save a remnant." Mr. Porter is far too ardent a naturalist to approve of the.methods adopted by collectors of specimens. To shoot a bird because it is a rarity is the last thing in the world he would do. Bird sanctuaries, unless they have a caretaker, he does not think are of .much] use. There is always the chanco of the gun-carrying collector getting to work unseen, and he. instanced what has happened in this way on certain islands. ■ ■ ' . • ■•; REMNANT OF A.. CONTINENT. Bird life in many parts of the .world has been studied; by,'. Mr» ; Porter /at various .times, and .the results of -his' studies, with photographs to illustrate' them, have found,their way into print. The bird life of the. Pacific, he says, is exceedingly interesting, and.a study of it leaves, no doubt, tjjat New Zealand is the remnant of a large continent, for similar birds are found as far away as New Caledonia. Fiji, he says, is lucky in having forest that does not burn. It is too wet. Bird life consequently is abundant there, village clearings being virtually aviaries with the thousands of brightly coloured birds in and around them. Long contact with native races has taught Mr. Porter that what the native says cannot always be relied upon. "A native will generally tell you what he thinks you want to hear, regardless of the veracity of his statement. I even met a Maori who solemnly assured me that he knew where there was a remarkable bird. It was a large bird with a front portion like a duck and a hinder portion shaped like a lizard. I regret to say I did not see this wonderful hybrid!'' Mr. Porter concluded an interesting chat by saying that in his opinion there was nothing more beautiful to be seen in any part of the world than some of the North Island scenery, and ho added, not because his interviewer was a 'Wellingtonian, but bocause he believed it to be true, that the birds in the Wellington Zoo were a better collection'than those in the Auckland Zoo, although ho had been told by Aucklanders that the Wellington Zoo was not worth going to.