NATIVE BATS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIX, Issue 13113, 29 April 1903, Page 5

NATIVE BATS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In the interesting and admirably written seriflw of articles entitled “ Our Animals,” published in the “Times” on Wednesday weekly, the paper on Wednesday last gave a graphic account of the structure and habits of tho two curious species of native bats. As every item of information on the habits of these rapidly expiring little ‘ mammals is of great value, I am able to give an analogous case of their gregarious habits to those given, by the author of the series of papers. Mr Matthew Smith, a resident of the Peninsula in the early days, but now of Ashburton, informed me lately that when bushfelling fifty years ago with his brother-in-law, the late Mr Manson, on his property at the Head of the Bay, they felled a large hollow broadleaf tree which contained ■'at least five hundred of the curious bats. Like other interesting denizens of the beautiful native bush, they were abundant in the fifties and much later, but they are now, as vour correspondent observes, on. the very verge of extinction. Mr Smith also informed me that native pigeons and kakas were enormously abundant from, fifty to thirtv-five years ago in the Kahuna bush, where a sackful could be obtained in an hour with the gun, or by knocking them down with a long stick. It is sad, indeed, to think of those enchanting scenes •of the early days, and to still witness the charming native bush rapidly vanishing, and with it those unique mammals, birds and insects which have been described by Professor Newton, of Cambridge, as being, zoologically, the pride and glory of New Zealand.—lT am, etc., W. W. SMITH. Ashburton, April 27, 1903.