BIRDS AND FORESTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 16 October 1925, Page 3

BIRDS AND FORESTS.

OUR GREAT HERITAGE.

PECULIAR MIGRATIONS OF NATIVE BIRDS.

It is incumbent upon all the people of New Zealand to show' active interest in their heritage —our forests and birds (states a bulletin issued by the New Zealand Native Birds Protection Society). If the people w'iekedly and apathetically allow this priceless heritage to be * destroyed, then, will we richly deserve what we will get—an almost birdless, insect-ridden, devastated and eroded land. No good citizen can afford to stand idly by.

The reappearance and disappearances of our birds in particular localities is a matter little* understood,’ and the following observations by Mr Annabell, now deceased, dated June 17, 1922, are instructive and interesting. My observations are confined to the country lying betw'een the Patea and Wanganui rivers, and more especially to that area of rough country drained by the Waitotara river. As regards the kiwi, weka and pukeko, I first visited that part of this area in 1875-76 lying around the head wafers of Kai Iwi stream and the Manganui-o-tahu and Mangapapa streams, which latter two join and empty into the Waitotara about 25 to 30 miles from the sea. I heard no kiwi nor did I see any signs of them. Wekas were present in limited numbers. As no country wms altogether under forest there were no pukeko. In 1879 I. w'as hack in .the Upper Waitotara surveying the Mangapapa No. 1 Block, lying on the eastern side of the Waitotara river, between the Manganui-o-tahu and the Makakaho streams. I spent about three months in the bush with 10 Maoris and their wives and families,, and also their dogs. The Maoris kept a number of their party out most of the time, hunting pigs "for food, hut no kiwis were caught nor did 1 hear the Maoris speak of kiwi. Also I saw no signs of them. Wekas were heard occasionally only. In the year 1881 I spent eight months surveying on the eastern side of the Patea river near the head waters of the Whenuakura. We caught no kiw'is, and personally I saw* no signs of them, but two of the party reported that they had seen the marks of a kiwi on a tributary of the Whenuakura. Wekas not at all plentiful. Towards the latter part of the year 1883 I returned to the Upper Waitotara country, and I heard the first kiwi on December Bof that year. This was at the Trig-Kapara on the w’estern side of the river in the Kapara Survey District.

I spent the year 1884 and nearly the whole of 1885 in the Upper Waitotara district. We now bega"n to see signs of kiwi and to hear them more often at night. Wekas were heard occasionally. In 1886 we worked over the watershed on towards the Wanganui river above Pipiriki. While cleaning a trig station here 1 found a dead kiwi that had been killed by a wild dog. The dog had buried the bird in the soft ground of a pig looting. Kiwis were now to be heard almost every night, and occasionally we found the skins of those killed by wild dogs turned inside out. About this time 1 caught one alive, and kept it in Wanganui for some time. About 1888 returned to the Upper Waitotara. Kiwis fairly plentiful. Wekas scarce. In 1892 I "took up a bush section in the Kapara Survey District, Taranaki, and have lived here ever since.

About the year 1896 kiwis had increased greatly in numbers. Though the country was being felled and roaded, all the bush contained them in numbers. And this remained so for 10 to 15 years, after which they were not quite so plentiful; but still were not at all scarce away from the heavy bush. About 1918 I noticed' that they were getting scarce, and this continued. Now (1922), though they are still fairly plentiful in the heavy bush, still there are, 1 should say, not more than onetenth of the numbers of, say, 1911. Wekas increased in numbers in the district from about 1900 to 1905, and became moderately plentiful in favourable localities, after which they became scarcer, and I have ,not heard the cry of a bird for several years. Pukeko came about 1903-5, and in certain limited- but favourable localities they multiplied greatly; about 1916-17 they began to decline in numbers. There are now only a few left. Thirty years ago the piopio, or native thrush, would be heard in a limited number of the heavily timbered valleys. Now, if any are left, it will be in some of the remote valleys of the forest reserve. Bell birds remain in .fair numbers, also whiteheads, but the kaka and kakariki are only heard in the seldom-visited localities.