NO HARM.

Franklin Times, Volume XIX, Issue 138, 27 November 1929, Page 6

NO HARM.

OPOSSUMS AND BIRD LIFE, AN EXPERT'S OPINION. ''l understand your society is interested in the opossum, and particularly in the question whether they are destructive of bird life," wrote Mr E. D McKenzie in a letter to the Southland Acclimatisation Society Council recently (states an exchange). "I may say that I resided on my father's property of about 40,000 acres in Victoria, near Mortlake, for a number of years, and I have shot as many as 500 opossums in one night. In no case have I known of damage to bird life by opossums other than by the ringtailed or small opossum. I have been in New Zealand now for over 20 years and had experience of opossums in the bush and in no single instance have I ever known of opossums damaging the bird life or eating other than leaves, berries or other vegetable matters. I would further mention that when I was a boy of twelve years of age I had three canaries, two female and a male, and three opossums in the same enclosure. The canaries regularly reared their young without the slightest interference from the opossums. I have also seen the opossum leave his nest in a tree right adjacent to a laughing jackass's nest and the opossum did not interfere with the nest or young birds. For these reasons, I am satisfied that the opossum, other than the ring-tailed, does absolutely no harm to bird life."