THE NOTORNIS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 27 April 1925, Page 10

THE NOTORNIS.

TS IT EXTINCT.

Do aiiv living specimens of the notornis still remain ?' is a question that is engaging the attention of the Otago Museum authorities. Curiously enough, evidence (says the. Otago Daily Times.) has recently been accumulating that would indicate at least a strong probability that the notornis is not yet extinct’ but that a living specimen, or even specimens, may any day find their way into the hands of those who will know how to treasure and preserve them. Mr. \V. Good let, caretaker of the Museum, who has been keenly interesting himself in the matter, reports that over a year ago there was a visitor to the Museum who displayed extraordinary interest in the notornis exhibited there. lie was a man from Te Anau, and alter a long talk he left Mr. Good let satisfied that the visitor definitely knew of the haunt of a notornis and had seen it ihiiee times within the previous three months. A few weeks ago a tourist visiting the Museum again definitely indentified the notornis there with a bird he had seen, and of which lie had carefully noted particulars, in the Te Anau district, and he reported the matter to Dr. Denham, who is the greatest living authority on the notornis. Onlv recently another visitor to the Museum, this time from Milford Sound, was equally positive in his assertions to Mr. Goodlet that he Jiad seen a notornis in Milford Sound and knows where it is to be got. This 'iimulntive evidence seems to suggest that there is here at any rate something that should be sifted to the bottom without delay. Such flightless birds, if they exist, are in imminent peril of the stoats and weasels, which, under Government protection, are working enormous iiavoe among native birds such as kakapos, kiwis, wekas, and wood pigeons. The proper course if one of these' birds can he located is to have it pap tilled and placed in some suitable sancturav for its protection, where its habits may he studied and its hotly preserved after death.