ACCLIMATISATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4198, 2 August 1875, Page 2

ACCLIMATISATION.

ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY'S MEETING.

A meeting of the Council of the Acclimatisation Society was held on the 29th ult, there being- present—Messrs J. T. Thomson, A. C. Begg, hon. Secretary, W. D. Murison (in the chair), and F. Deaus, Manager. The Manager reported that fourteen young charr had been obtained from the eggs brought out by the Timaru ; that the fish were now about two inches long, and were thriving. They had been removed from the hatching boxes, and were now in a small pond by themselves at Opoho. Mr Deaus also reported that he had now about forty large trout in the ponds at the grounds. From one of these he yesterday procured about 5000 eggs. Altogether there are' now about 23,000 eggs in the hatching boxes, and he expects that there will be a considerable addition to this number before the season doses. It was reported that the pheasant-

Sli°i°Vuff Se^ on wouW close on Saturday firsts ana that thirty-two licenses have been taken out at the Treasury, the fees for which will be {landed to the Society. It was requested that attention should be drawn by the Press to the fact that foul fish are being taken trom the Water of Leith, and that a service will be rendered to the Society by those who will give such information as will lead to the detection of offenders in this respect. It was decided that His Honotir the Superintendent should be requested to open all the streams in. which fishing was allowed last year, from the loth September, 1875, to loth March, 1876. Jhe fishing season, for the Water of Leitb however, to be from Ist November to Isfe * ebruary. It was also resolved that the Deep btream and Lee Stream should be opened foe fish.ng Mrßegg and Mr Murison were appointed a Sub-Committee to arrange for the distnbutmn of the young trout. Attention was drawn to a statement in the newspapers » l 11,* 0 ameml the Protection of Animals Act, 1873, has been introduced in the Assembly Ihe Chairman was requested to prepare a list of amendments, to be" submitted to the Council, and, if approved of, to be forwarded to His Honour the Superintendent, with a view to their being introduced by him into the Bill. The Key F A. Hare, late Private Secretary to Sir James Fergusson wrote saying, that when in Western. Austraha lately, he M ked the Colonial sS tary whether his Government would be willin K ■lv^ c ex£ na,nß:e? for "cclimatisatiou purposes with New Zealand. Mr Hare enclosed a of the animals and birds which the Government of Western Australia are willing to supply. These consist of kangaroos, dalireife bourdies, opossums, and various other small marsupials; wallabies, emus, black swans ' gnow (native pheasant-very rare), conkatooa black and white), and various. kinds of parakeete It was resolved that the Key. Mr Fare be informed that in all probability none of £2 ?Km % *"? m' 8 and T .bir(ls «« ™ited to tht climate of Otago. It was decided to hold the annual meeting of the Society early in Septemr> «. TSr°7 T ™ NEW ZBAtAUD. • v\ «. Ath ,^ f- P aptain Hlltt™ Paid a visit to the Acclimatisation Society',, (Grounds for the purpose of examining the trout in the ponds. One of these was reported to be * salmon trout, and Captain Hutton lundlvcon* sented to decide the question. Several Semen, including the officers of the Acch-ma^_ turn Society, were present while the fishwaSP* being inspected At the first poml MrJ&Si brought out with his net several fine male fiX the largest of which measured 26in. in leS 'T ln-/l rth ; the s«l'l'osed weight was 71bZ Another fish measured 23in. longed 14in. °fc %£* waJS 22in- lm S and 12ul S girth. Altogether, at this poml, some hal£ dozen trout were handled, the smallest of which was about 3ibs The party then proceeded to the pond where the females wire, trout At the first glance most home trout I fishers would have pronounced it to be a genuine salnw irutta, but Captain Huttoa (pointed out the distinguishing marks of the ! species, and declared it to be a specimea of the salim farw or brown trout! This fish proved to be full of eggs, an d „ I nearly ripe for spawning. Several othe? ! females were handled, the largest S ing about 51bs, and measuring 21 inches long and 13 in girth. Two of the femaW IT^fcj?l*'f7ld these were conveyed S a two bodied hath to the otherpond. ¥he£ they were manipulated by Mr tfeana, whoremoved upwards of 2000 eggs from the pafr,and carried out the process of impregnation by mixing with the eggs some milt freshly taken from two of the male trout Th e females . were then conveyed hack to their pond, and in. the course of a few days they will be ready again for stnppmg, Altogether there are now fe the ponds about twenty-fivetront, and beforethe season closes, it is anticipated thatabnut2o 000 healthy eggs will be obtained from them. Li addition to this supply, the Society hasalready 8000 eggs in the hatching boxes at Opoho. It is not improbable, moreover, that before the season is over, a further supply of trout for breeding will be procured, 'tfhe Society, Z understand, is desirous of making every effort to have all the streams in the Province stocked dunng the ensuing summer, and hence the unusual exertions that are beingmade to obtain the largestpossiblequantityofeggsbeforethespawning season ends. Although to some extent it isa disappointment that a salmon trout has not been obtained, it is gratifying to know from the subjoined letter, written by Mr Francis Francis, the well known authority on fish culture, and • published recently in the Field, that our trout come from the very best stock ia Great Britain; that the parent fish from which the eggs sent out to Australia were taken do not only attain a very large size but that they are regarded as an excellent table fish. The similarity of some 01 them to the salmon trout is not to be wondered at, as Mr Francis states that the Wyecombe trout, "in their native stream, are nearly ■ as silvery as a salmon, and cut as red, or redder.' . ' The letter from Mr Francis to which we hava referred, and which we give below, was written through his attention having been called! through the columnsof the Field, to the opinira of a Mr Rutherford, said to be "a scientific gentleman from Geelong," to the effect that # the 500 trout ova sent out by the Lincolnshire m 1866 by Messrs Francis and Buckland, are not brown trout at all, but bull trout, and that the Tasmaman people have, acclimatised afishi which is not only valueless, but is a regular fresh-water shark." In reply to this statement, Mr Francis Francis writes:—''My attention has been directed to the above paragraph^ and, ns prompt contradiction fe always desirable in such mattere, I have been permitted to answer this wmultaneoiißly with its appearance. The scientific gentleman from , ,! lonBLi Mr Rutherford) is too scientific by half. The ova of the trout which. J sent out were taken from a part of the Wycombe stream Bucks, and of the river Wey at Alton, Hante; the trout ova sent by Mr Buckland were I have been told, from those of the Itchen at Alresford, Hante. Now it is essential for butt trout that they should go to the sea, they bemr migratory hke the salmon. This the fish in the Wyeombe stream cannot do, for between Wvcombe and the Thames there is about nine mfles of river'poisoned by paper milk, and in wltfcfe no hsh lives. In the other case, tho Wev is also a tributary^ the Thamea ; 'and any sM froineither tributary would, after getting into the Thamea, have to go through the London Wtn—which none of our migratory Salmonidas have succeeded in doing in modern days. Oa tbe Itehen there are numerous impassable milldams, up which no fidr could get There are as a fact, sea trout, locally called "bouge," in* the itchen, but they are never seen within, twenty miles of Alresford. There is no doubt that the scientific gentleman' from'Geeloni? has been misled by the peculiar silveriness of the Wycombe trout, which in their native stream, are nearly as silvery as a salmon, and cut as red or redder, A somewhat similar mistake was made in New Zealand where some of the breed were imported; but there it was thought that they were bred from Thames trout That tho Tasmanians should be willing to believe the above or any other nonsense, whether from Geelong or elsewhere does not surprise me; and that we shouldyb* tarn any thanks from them for the splendMaidowment of their rivers with, perhaps JR finest trout in the world, the example affords!*by their treatment of Mr Youl certainly dki not lead me to expect; but they might have refrained from sitting upon us and our wellmeant endeavours in this way. As for the bull trout-being a fresh-water shark, that is as great rubbish as the rest, as any angler who has experience of it will say. There are fewfish which whenclean, aremore difficult to catch-fly worm* and minnow being equally indifferent to it* • ■ Now and then a fish may be got by a small trout fly in early spring. I caught the only ' pne 1 ever did catch, with a small March brown only a month or six weeks a"o. As for their valuelessness, they have been fetching; lately about 2d a pound less than salmon. ]£ hundreds of cases in London they are sold foe salmon. No doubt, when the Tasmanians want other of our native products exported and acclimatised, they will find many more Englishmen willing to assist them."

TROUT OVA. The Acclimatisation Society, we hear continues to make every effort to obtain * good supply of trout ova before the spawning season closes. Mr Deans, the Society's Matiager, has just returned from Lee Stream where he spent several days in endeavouring to procure some eggs. The river was rather high and discoloured for his purpose, but during his stay he managed to discover five nests or ridds in the bed of the stream. la , some of these the eggs were bad, but he succeeded in obtaining 4000 healthy eggs, whielt have been deposited in the batching boxes afe Opoho. In addition to these there are already in the boxes upwards of 4000 eggs, which, were got from Shag River. It is expected, however, that before the season closes & much larger supply will be procured. At the ponds Mr Deans has some very fine fish. These are mostly males, the .smallest o£ which cannot weigh less than five pounds. He has also a fine female salmon trout weighing about six pounds, ready to upawn, and he is in hope that within the next few days he will be able to obtain a male fish of this species. It is known that the trout in the Water of Lcith are spawning, and we would urge upon all respectable persons who hearoff the wanton destruction of these fish at the present time to convey what informatioa they may possess with promptness to the Police. Only last week, a resident in the Water of Lejth district observed some boya ■ with trout in their possession. He challenged the lads, but they ran away, and dropped the fish. Upon examination, two of the trout proved to be females full of eggs. As fish in this state are unfit as food, t£eir_ destruction is purely a wanton act; • and is is clearly the duty of eresy rights

minded person to give the Police the clue to offenders of this sort when he has the power "to do so. There is a stupid feeling abroad ihat what was regarded as "poaching" in 4ho home country should be looked upon out here with a lenient eye j but the public of Otago has shown in an untnistakeable way that it ib desirous that its streams should be stocked with fish and its lands with game ; and while the attempt is being made to bring about this result, it is surely not too much for those who are working for the public in this behalf to ask for its co-operation, until at least our streams and our lands are stocked. SOUTJIEEN NOTES. The work of the Acclimatisation Society is mow, after an apparently long and patient wait, beginning to show large and useful results j at any rate, as far as the country south of Dunedin is concerned, of which only I have any knowledge, and which, thanks t) ats efforts, bids fair to show a very large area •of land as well stocked with game as the heart of a sportsman could desire. From local knowledge of the country from the lower Taieri Bridge to south of the Molyaioux mouth by the sea, and taking a Hue from Maungatua to Lawrence, thence to the Beaumont Ferry, from there to Popotunoa, and thence to the edges of the great bu:>h which runs to Catlin's River, and furthir south, I may saftly say that this large space of country, of many thousand acres, *ruite equivalent to a fair sized county either in England or Scotland, is now so well stocked with pheasants, partridges, and over a very large aud rapidly extending part of it, with hares, that in the course of a very short time, say two years, all the guvs, or rather .gunners, that Olago is likely go produce will Toe able to shoot away to their hearts' content, jrovided thit the legs of the said jguuners are of a sufficiently-enduring quality to carry the guns to and about the placeß ■^wjjjH'here the game is most abundant. To begin x^vith the pheasants ; the wandering habit 3of these birds (so beautiful in plumage, and, when hung long euough and properly cooked, so beautiful on the table) are vveli known to all sportsmen, and they have certainly sustained their character in Otago ; as the only places where I know of their having been turned down are Tokornairiro, Kaitangata, Inch Clutha, and Popotunoa, from which, and there only in small quantities, they have spread over the very large district meutioued .above, in what may (taking into consideration the average, and the eggs and young •ones, which must certainly have been dcs rtroyed by wood hens, cats, hawks, and rou^h weather) be considered an incredibly short time. In fact, they have increased and spread to such an extent from the very small beginning that they had as to render it almost a certainty that the common pheasant .must breed here more than once in a season, .as we know the Chinese ones do, and this is jnot to b". wondered at when we consider the mildness of the climate, and the good shelter that can be got all the year round, and in Any weather, in the ferny gullies, as well as the abundance of. food they can obtain with very little trouble. I have myself seen broods of young ones as early as the month of September, and have also seen other young broods just old enough to take wing for v. Vt;ry short distance, in fact, quite chirpers, aa late in the season as the end of Maich. This gives a range of seven months as the "breeding season, and there cau he very little doubt that many of the hens nest twice during this long period. The common pheasants do not s^om to care any more fur the bushes than for the open ground, as they may be found all over the ridges, far away from any trees, but thoso that <!o happen to stay aboui the hushes .take advaufcage of the trees to xcost in, <is they may be heard frequently flying up and oiakiug tlicir peculiar call when they go to roost. The Chinese pheasants that iveie turned.down at Inch. Clutha ami Ivaitang-tta do not appear to use the trees at all, as the careful looker may find in Kaitangata bush plenty of their roosting bed 3, gentxallj at the foot of a tree ; nor do they appear to have spread in anything like the same poportiou as the other pheasauts, although they are fairly abundant in the district in which they were first placed ; for instance, -common phcasfints are by to means scarce near KaifcaDgata, where Chinese pheasants alone wore placed, and these must have come from Tokomairiro j but on the other hand, there .are .no Chinese pheasiints at Tokomainiro ; nor have I ever yet been able to detect a crossbred bird between the Chinese ■ and common bird. The food of the pheassnts seems to vary very much, aa the crops of some which I have lately examined have contained, in some instances, grains of corn, buah berries, i c., seeds of pepper tree, bioad-leaf, miro, &c., as as the leaves and seeds of uome of the herbs and grasses that, grow in the open grouud; and in ouo instance, save the mark! a very.considerable quantity of potato, and, no doubt, if examine'! in the suinmor, would be found full of grasshoppers and caterpillars. The avc-3-ageof thebirdsthat Ihaveseen this season are ofavcry largesizoandmoatbeautiful plumage, being mostly ringtd round the neck with white feathers, and averaging nearly 3 lbs each. For the pheasant shooting here, good s'euly spaniels wiiibe wanted for the bushej and bubhy gullies, and very steady setters or pointeis for the open ground, as the birds run very much, and often get up very wild. The partridges, the first of whLh were liberated about six years ago, have ir.oreased and done quite us well as the pheasants all over the abovementioned district., andacoveyor coveys may be seen or heard of almost everywhere. They seem to prefer the ridges to the lower plains, and are not dependant on the cultivated ground for food, as many coveys may be found too far away from any cultivation to lead to the supposition that they fly to the at bblis, &c., for food, thus proving satisfactorily that they find abundf.nca «>f food among the native grasses and fern. A great many coveys are found juat on the borders of the cultivation, and those, doubtless, iced to a certain extent in the paddocks, and yoost among the tussocks. During a snow storm lost winter 1 put up 24 partridges in one lot near Tokcnairiro, which were suniiing themselves under a gorse hedge, and these flew down on to the pla:n into alfielcl of turnips ; and I am told that there JfiPfe covey to bo Been nearly every morning (§036 to the Balclutha Hotel, fe'ding on the oats, &••;., le ft oy the drayineu'g fcorSTS ; on their carapipg gvounfl, If of birds ial"tt alone for say {wii >ears, there Is no dou''(i we shall have such partridge I

shooting as very few countries can show, and fcVifn really g^od, steady, wide ranging dog« ■yfiV le nt » pn/mhin?. Californian quail have also tioiie voiy well, and are in g^oat abundance about Inch Clutha, JCaitangata. and that neighbourhood, but they do not ppem 1o ''arc to go far away from the bushes Tnty aro a very handsome, quick-flying bird bnt I do not think they will afford much sport to the shooter, as they go in lar^e flocks usu illy, and when sprung, fly straight to the nearo't bush, and sit on th^ tops of thet'e'S. The black swans have ako ii>

creased f»i<t, and may now be said to be fairly a-clim^isid. They nay be sen in quantities on tho Tuakitoto and K^it ing".'.". Like-, and also on tie yVaih^'l, L\lie, and have been not unfreutioutiy peen flying ov«r the Tokoroairiro v'art on tb" j""™"? f rom Olle lake t '.he oilier, a slisfciiiCfe :f at J'.ast 15 miles; but they seem toprofcr the form r Jakes both for breeding and feeding as they are more shallow and muddy in tho bottom, nnd Arc mcrj full of weerls and grasses, on •which they seem to feed. Apart from gamo bird", the society has boen hig'ly iuecea.-fu' in the introduction, of useful insectivorous bi^s ; foremost of these, the starling may now be found in quantities all round Dunelin. oa the Tft'.'cri pVn, the WaiLola lake, awl ifw north cud of the Tok-m^iriro-plaiu, ■and are fast spreading southwards. They seem to go to the bushes ehi-fly to breed, and make their nests iv .any hollows in treea th-1 they can Cml, but all the rest of tho y*ir maybe found following their uaefttl calling of erub destroying all over the grass paddock?. It i 3 the doty of every thinking man to see that these moat useful birds are thoroughly protected in his own neig" bourhoo 1, instead of beiii" ruthlf saty shot by ignorant fools of boys a:id new chums, as they have alnwdy "been in aorae instances, in the vicinity of Dnnedin. The y are not good to eat, do no barm whatever to any kind of crop, either cere lor green crop, in fact never touch them, living aln.mt entirely on iwecte, and areinfac become quite a neo-asity, sathoy appear to li» th- on'y eW and w»y m^m which i. I' o ■<l>scnt:e of ro:k> nnd ja- lcdaw*. Zew likely to get for the destructum of tho grul* which, for the h t ten years, hive appeared in so great sbundanor and now mike such sad havoc with nearly al our sown out pad-lo ks. The B ky or s.ng, H g lurks have iiho thriven in a most extraordinary manner. Tl.oy were turned out only some tiirceSor fo-ir years ngo. and now all round ■tb. t Viahbmi.hoocJ, they are as thick as in any part of tho home country; a djzen or

more may be heard or seen, at the same time, soaring in tho air and singing any spring morning, anywhere about the Tokomairiro plain; and in the winter, large flocks of them are to be seen, chiefly on the newly ploughed ground. They are, in fact, now much more abundant there than the small native lark, but do not seem to take to the tussock ground at all, sticking closely to the cultivated land.

The hares, of wh-ch three were put on a sort of an island in the lower part of the Waipori Eiver eight years ago, did liofc stay there loDg, as they soon escaped, not appearing to like the low swampy ground, and found their way to the foot of the ranges, and from thence have spread over a very large area of country, as they aTe now to be foum' all over the ranges, from the Waihola up to Waitahuna and Lawrence on the one side, and on Akatore and Mount Misery on the other, and are fast spreading over Mount Stuart, where I suppose the Molyneux River will partially stop thtui, although I have heard of one or two being ssen south of the Molyneux. They are so plentiful now in some places on the ridges above the place they were origiually turned out that, by anyone properly hunting for them, a dozen or twenty might be found in a day without much difficulty. Coureing will soon be the order of the day in that neighbourhood. It will take dogs of a very superior description to mount many hills; and in the course of a few years, if they go on increasing as they have done, the free use of the gun will be requisite to keip them within bounds.