CAGE BIRDS

Evening Post, Issue 50, 27 August 1935, Page 13

CAGE BIRDS

AVI CULTURAL SOCIETY

SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT

The sixth annual report and • bulletin of the Avicultural Society of New Zealand, which has just been published, records an increase in aviculture in New Zealand and contains a. large number of articles on the; care and breeding of cage birds. Several articles on native birds are also included, interesting observations regarding the birds on Kapiti Island being supplied by Mr. A. S. Wilkinson.

The report states that six importations of cage birds have taken place during the year, the most outstanding being .a consignment from Sydney, of fifty varieties of finches and parrakeets of ■ usual and unusual ~ species. Many new species were imported during the year, including rare Australian parrakeets and honey-eaters, Mexican nonpareils,". and rose-breasted -grosbeaks. A shipment of African waxbills, finches; and wydahs'is expected to arrive, from England during rSeptember, and will be the first of its kind for several years.

The activities of the society in encouraging the planting of berry-produc-ing shrubs both for cage birds and native birds are stated to have been most successful, many, persons apart from members of the society having made provision for birds in this way. , "The suggestion has been that the society should further the propagation of native birds by assisting in the planting of food-bearing trees and shrubs in the waste land adjacent to standing bush," the report states. "It is possible that, as a result of a recent suggestion, a definite proposal will be made to the society concerning an, area of between two and three thousand acres of scrub land for replanting. The surface of this area is rather steep, and contains - several inaccessible valleys and> well-watered gullies."

Included in the bulletin are articles on native parrakeets, kiwis, the dottrel, weka,l pigeon, pipit, , and grey warbler, and these contain interesting observations made by Mr. Wilkinson on Kapiti Island.

A member (Mr. W. A. Rimmer), in an. article on the huia, states that this' bird was plentiful when he was a youth, and was much sought by the Maoris, who shot it in large numbers. The call of the bird was imitated, and on one occasion over one hundred birds were shot in two ,days. "Couple these excursions (which were probably fairly common) with the destruction of the forests, and the introduction of stoats and rats, and it is perhaps small wonder that this species could not hold its own," Mr.-Rimmer comments. »

The bulletin also includes articles on Samoan and Australian birds! and useful advice on 'the breeding" of cage birds is given by Mr.,G. Rowland Hutchison, who is secretary of the society.