IMPORTED KOOKABURRAS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21521, 19 June 1933, Page 10

IMPORTED KOOKABURRAS

BIRDS REPORTED SEEN

EARLY LIBERATION ON KAWAU

The recent report of an Australian kookaburra being seen at Gisborne, and a published account of the liberation of a number near Tolaga Bay in 1597, has prompted a correspondent to supply the following information:—• '"Several small shipments of kookaburras were liberated between ISSO and 1886. Of these, a number placed on Kawau Island by Sir George Grey were apparently tho only survivors. These gradually increased and eventually crossed to the mainland. They have been seen along the coast from opposite Kawau to Devonport. In Australia it feeds on lizards, snakos, small mammals and birds and insects, and has been known to help itself to ducklings and chickens." The curator of the Auckland Zoological Park, Mr. L. T. Griffin, to whom tho information was referred yesterday, said he was aware that kookaburras had been liberated at Kawau Island and in the neighbourhood of East Cape, but he doubted very much whetlier any of the birds had been seen on the mainland opposite Kawau.for a great many years. Ho had been told by tho late Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, then curator of the Auckland Museum, that a number of the birds were on Kawau at one time* but he was sure they had all since disappeared, probably having been shot by visitors to the isiand. "An to tho statement that tho birds have been seen on the mainland opposite Kawau, I think, if it were the case, that some of them would have been caught and brought to tho museum," said Mr. Griffin, "but I have not seen a live one brought in dyring the 25 years I have been associated with the museum."