NATURE-AND MAN

Northern Advocate, 18 October 1933, Page 10

NATURE-AND MAN

BIRDS V. INSECTS.

PENALTIES FOR MISTAKES,

(Edited by Leo Fanning.)

"When myriads of caterpillars avcvc ravaging pastures and crops in a Canterbury district recently, a ucavspaper correspondent asked this question: “Is not this a result of the disturbance of the balance of nature by the unrestricted use of poisoned wheat for the destruction of birds, man’s best friends’??

For many years farmers of Canterbury, Avith the co-operation of local bodies, have Avaged Avar on small birds, to the great joy of insects and grubs, Avliich are likely to continue their troublesome visitations until more respect is paid to their enemies, the birds. Looking Backward. The present plague in Canterbury is a. reminder that the early settlors —■ to saA’e their crops —had to introduce the very birds Avliich their successors haA’e so pitilessly persecuted. The pioneers reproduced the farming operations of the Mother Country, but they lacked the necessary birds to maintain the balance of nature. They soon found that they Avere providing fodder for pests and they Avere faced with ruin until salvation came with the acclimatisation of insect-eating birds.. By chance the other day I picked tip a copy of “The Ladies’ Hoiho Journal,” of April, 1008. Those Avere the days Avhen the dressed feminine figure shoAvcd plenty of bust and hip. a Avasp Avaist and a huge hat, garnished with plumage of . artificial • flowers. The millinery of one iilust rai imi fa

-young woman, monish I;.' ; 1 11 irt■ fI) car riecl four wing.'. Fashionable beauty —lh ou gh 11 ess 1 y barbaric took heavy toll of birds. Jo that same issue there was an article hy (\ ’William Beebe, Curator of Ornithology of Hie Xew York Zoological ’.Society ami author of several books on birds. The treatise was headed: “How the American People Alight Starve to Death —And Through One Simple Fact: If the Birds Just Ceased to Be. ” The writer assumed the complete destruction of birds throughout the world, and then presented this picture:— “The ’first thing the farmer would notice would be the thousands and tens of thousands of caterpillars and maggots which find food in abundance

| and which know no enemy in life

These insects grow quickly to maturity, and, in turn, scatter their untold millions of eggs. “The first year the crops would, perhaps, be of fair size, although every pod, every ear, would be damaged by weevil or grub.

“With the' first warmth of the following spring the insect, plague would break out/ anew. The seed grain would be poor and wormy. From the ploughed fields, choked with weeds which crowd every furrow, new terrors would arise—mice would overrun the earth, the grain would be levelled, and Avhen the crop was gone they would kill and eat one another. Every well of water Avould be defiled, every stream Avould be polluted Avith their dead bodies. Nature ' Avould strive to regain the balance: Avasps might slay hosts of insects, Aveasols and minks hunt their prey in broad daylight. But the quick snapping of beaks, the sharp eyes of the feathered beings of the air, Avould find no substitute. In .just Ijoav many years the end Avould come no man may say: but come it surely Avould, and quickly. “With every sprig of vegetation devoured by caterpillars, Avorms and grubs, our domestic tiocks and herds Avould perish miserably. There Avould be no milk, no eggs, no beef, no meats of any kind. Finally Mother Earth would bow her head in helplessness, and mankind Avould perish from star-' vation, or, for a time, eke out existence on a diet of fish." Clamour Against Keas. Some holders of sheep-runs in mountainous country of the South Island are again agitating for expenditure of the general taxpayers’ money for the killing of keas, the playful parrots which endear themselves to tourists in the Alpine region. Friends of the kea state strongly that the bird is blamed for much more mischief than it commits. In an article on this subject in the “ .V.Z. .loimial of Agri-- ull urc,” !>;•. (1. Myers remarkid:—

“At the outset it most be emphatically maintained that, -as the birds eat carrion, all dead sheep found with wounds similar to those usually atl ciliated to keas are not necessarily killed by keas. It has so long been the custom in kea districts to write oli a very big proportion of the annual loss of sheep as due to keas that the loss due to other causes, notably to the r’ongii nature of the country, appears to be largely overlooked. Gutlirie-Smith, wilting as a sheepfarmer of life-long experience ami a scientific observer of unimpeachable accuracy, states: “In a well-managed, well-fed, and carefully culled flock miming on perfectly safe country, 11

or 21 per cent is about the normal death-rate. It is the unavoidable loss incurred through diseases more or less akin to those causing death in the human race. On Tutira, however, a minimum loss of 5 per cent has never been quite reached; it is the toll paid by the station to cliff and bog. . . .’

Tutira is in northern IlaAvkc’s Bay, in country which, though including an area of deep gorges, cannot bo compared for general roughness Avith the average -of sheep-stations in the regions inhabited by the kea. In these regions the musterers are necessarily mountaineers, and there can be no more precipitous country carrying sheep in the. world. It Avould be interesting to knoAv just how much of the high death-rate due to these abnormal conditions and to the rigours of the mountain Avinter is attributed to the kea.”

Any investigation of this matter should include the question of Avhether it is to Xcav Zealand’s advantage to have some of that high country used for sheep-runs. It is Avcll-knoAvn that some farmers, by their habit of burning off tussock to promote fresh succulent grOAvth, have eventually destroyed this pasture, Avliich acted as a protective covering. With the perishing, of this A-egetatiou on steep slopes, rains .him' scoured away the soil and the Avay has been opened for serious erosion which is a menace to lower country. A Friend Of The Rose. This is the time Avlieu the common sparrow conies to the help of the rose, which is attacked by green aphis. I have a big rose Avliich climbs on a trellis. Regularly I see sparrows feasttherc on the insects or gathering them for nestlings. The young shoots are kept as clean as if they Avere carefully hand-picked. “Movies” Of Native Birds. Tlk> latest enterprise of the New Zealand Native Bird .Protection Society is the preparation of moving pictures of Inis, bell-birds, gunnels, shags and oilier fealhered life. People in many disl riels will soon have an intimate introduction to some of their birds, and will see how well they respond to kindness.

'i’li is society is busier than ever with its campaigns for the native forest, and birds. it is really a big drive for national welfare, because (In 1 society’s work is always for the public good, which is occasionally threatened by short-sighted, selfish sectional interests. .More members are needed in this great national cooperative effort for the safegiumlmg of vitally important nalural assets.