BIRD LIFE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 19 May 1923, Page 7

BIRD LIFE

POSITION IN NEW ZEALAND Interesting information about the bird life, of New Zealand was given by Mr J. .G Myers in the course of a lecture imder the auspices of the Workers' Educational Association (says the Wellington Post). Mr Myers said he would take his hearers back to the close of the Meso»oic era, when New Zealand formed the south-west extension of a great continent stretching north to Fiji and New ' Guinea. At that time that portion which was to survive as New Zealand when all the remaining links sank beneath the .surface of the ocean was colonised by; most of the land birds, or J rather, by most of the ancestors of the birds which later were to constitute the I most extraordinary avine population! on the face of the globe. "The birds then were the highest evolved inhabitants of this isolated land," said Mr Myers. "It was a heavily wooded country; the birds and the forest grew in beauty side by side. This ancient New Zealand was above all things a land of birds—no other mass of land so largo has remained isolated so long; in no other area of any considerable size have birds achieved terrestrial domination. Such an unusual state of affairs was certain to lead to extraordinary results. The birds had no natural enemies, except among their own members, and the birds of prey were singularly few. . . . The only cloud in the sky was a gigantic eagle to which our largest eagles at the present day were as sparrow-hawks. It seems highly probable that the extinction of the old New Zealand eagle was a direct consequence of the extermination of the huge birds on which it preyed by ' the Maoris or their predecessors. The direct result of the isolation under which they lived, and their freedom from the beasts of prey which in all other countries constitute a terrible danger to bird life, and maintain the flying efficiency of birds at an Al level, was that the birds of New Zealand, particularly the larger kinds which could find an ample supply of food on or near the ground, gradually lost the power of flight." After referring to the birds and their association with the. Maoris, Mr Myers proceeded: "Then came the white man, and every influence winch he brought into the new country was injurious to the birds. The story of the colonisation of New Zealand is as tragic. in . every detail as the conquest of Pern. By the 'cut-hack-burn' policy, the birds have not only been driven out, but the haunts and environments to which \ they have become adapted in a marvellous manner during ages of unparalleled isolation have been swept clean away. Dogs, cats, and pigs were let loose to find an easy prey ou birds . which had not learned to fear. Collectors of bird skins, early realising the • unique, character of tho birds of New Zealand, shot and exported thousands of those which escaped to the untouched hinterland. . . ." Mr Myers : said that these practices had some •. slight justification, but said that there was to follow a crime for which there could be no justification. He referred , to the deliberate introduction into New Zealand of the most bloodthirsty car- ; niverous animals of Europe—stoats, i weasels, and ferrets. 'Hie trouble they t were > brought, to combat—-the rabbit pest, had been admittedly a. great one, .' but the weasels and stoats carried 1 death to the feathered, population. The 1 speaker referred to the satisfactory ' protective laws that had been intro- : dueed, but regretted that in some part 3 •' of the country fliey were being ijf- ' nored. '