TOLL OF BIRDS

Manawatu Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 4600, 23 January 1936, Page 2

TOLL OF BIRDS

CIVILISATION’S MARCH,

EXPERIENCE IN VICTORIA

Disappearing bird life and the value of ibises in eradicating the grasshopper pest v r as discussed recently by Mr F. Lewis, chief inspector of fisheries and game in Victoria. “If such birds had been protected in the past,” he said, “there would have been no grasshopper plague. I know many places, some within 100 miles of Melbourne, where there were potential plagues of grasshoppers, but the ibises cleared out the pest. “There are at least two large ibis rookeries in Victoria—at Kerang and Barmali Lakes—and these ibises alone, on the calculation I have made, could deal with 1,250,000,000 grasshoppers a day. Had the ibis been better protected and had more breeding places been left there would have been at least 10 times more, of them than now 7 exist.”

The comment of a motorist who had recently toured the back country, that birds and animals seemed to be diminishing, and, particularly, that- the heart; was seldom gladdened by the, music of birds, brought from Mi 1 . Lewis the retort, “But did he get up early enough in the morning? Most birds in the bush are silent in the middle of the day. I was travelling in Gippsland once Avith a former Premier, and he commented on the'apparent scarcity of bird life. But I rose early... next morning and found a remarkable number of birds of all descriptions. Some birds certainly are decreasing, but others definitely are. increasing.” Generally speaking, said Mr. Lewis, the decrease in the numbers of certain birds and animals was due to one cause alone—the spread of settlement and the opening up of country. For instance, when swamps were drained to grow oats, potatoes, and maize, hundreds of thousands of birds Avere deprived of food and breeding places, as had happened at Koo-Avee-rup and Moe. Mr. LeAvis agreed that settlement could not be impeded, but he mentioned that in the United States it had been realised that many areas AA'hieh had been cleared and drained had proved unsuitable for cultivation, and that it was not always wise to drain swamps. He thought there Avas d lesson in that experience for Victoria, Avhere absolutely no attention had been given to the effect on bird life of drainage projects. That aspect should not be dominant, but it should have some consideration..

The brolga or native companion and the plain turkey or bustard had also suffered through the spread of settlement; indeed, the turkey Avas virtually extinct in Victoria. Poison laid for rabbits had also accounted for turkeys and other birds and animals. Mr. LeAvis said ' that. he believed that the poisoning of grasshoppers recently had not altogether an innocent motive, for many birds had, been, destroyed in the process.

‘Bush fires, had also destroyed thousands of birds. He believed that that factor was partly responsible for the almost complete extinction of the koala bear ‘bn the mainland. Phillip Island, French Island, Quail Island, and Badger. Creek, Healesville, were about the only places where the koala still flourished. On the other, hand, kangai’oos, wallabies and emus seemed not to have lost ground in recent years, although they were much less plentiful than in the days before the white man came.

(Discussing the “brighter side of the picture,” Mr Lewis said magpies, which thrived in open country, seemed to be increasing as cultivation was extended. They were exceedingly useful insectivorous birds. While parrots generally were decreasing, through the invasion of the forests by ■ timber-getters, the smoker parrot, as a result of protection, was increasing, particular l ly in the Mallee.