FRIENDS OR FOES ?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13518, 15 February 1906, Page 10

FRIENDS OR FOES ?

NEW ZEALAND'S FEATHERED IMMIGRANTS. WAS THEIR INTRODUCTION A MISTAKE? Br ,T. Dbuii.mo.nd. [Copyright.] vii.: PHEASANTS AND QUAIL. The, common pheasant (Phqsiarius.colchiens) and (ho ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus _torquatus) have had a strango and eventful history in this country. At first iheir acclimatisation was a notable and almost nn unqualified success. They succeeded wherever tlicy were introduced, increasing very rapidly and rearing healthy and hardy broods of young. Ono of the first successes was achieved by Sir Frederick Wold in 1865, when lie established the common pheasant in . Canterbury. Other importations into that province followed, the Acclimatisation Society bringing out fairly large numbers. In 1863 it bred 40 1 birds, -and sold them tOj members at £2 a pair. In the tussock-covewd land of Canterbury they thrived specially well, and the large Cheviot Estate, then held by the Hon. W. Robinson, was'soon'stocked with them. 11t Robinson spared no expense in preparing for their Teception when ho arranged for a consignment, supplied by tlie society. Ee erected commodious aviaries, ordered that all the cats on the estate should be killed, nearly extirpated the wokas, and had hawks destroyed at tho rato of six a, day. The society continued to import pheasants for a. considerable time, It bred about 100 birds in a year, and obtained a .fairly good income by selling- them to the owners of laTge estates. It sc-emed as if pheasants would, in a few years, spread throughout botli islands and become thoroughly naturalised. After this had gono on for some time tlie birds received a decided check. Their numbers neither increased nor decreased. Then they began to decrease rapidly, and, apparentlr, almost simultaneously ,iu many districts. Their complete failure, taking the colony as a whole, ie now beyond doubt. In Canterbury and other provinces where they were once exceedingly plentiful they are never seen at all. " Oiico • plentiful, bus decreasing or disappeared,"; are tho words generally written against tlicm in the circulars. This result, whioli is very regrettable from the sportsman's point of view, is attributed to tho laying of poison for rabbits, to' the depredations of. stoats, weasels, and wild rate, to bush fires, and, in a looser degree, to tho pheasants' food supplies being eaten by tho smaller introduced birds. It is stated that, the wekas as well as the stoats and. weasels, eat pheasants' eggs. ■ The birds are decreasing as rapidly , in districts where tlwe is plenty of cover as in districts where there is little or none. The destruction dono by bush fires is shown bv tho following statement from a • farmer at Mangahao, Pahiatua, Wellington district: — "AVlum sowintr rrrnss teed n.ftw hnsli firr.:

seven years ago I came across thousands of nests wilh the remains of eggs and tho charred hones of t-ho pheasants that ,liad been _ sitiing on them. They were verv plentiful here once, hut now, when one is seen, half the town and country is alter it to shoot it." In large numbers of cases the decrease has been rlmoSt simultaneous with the arrival

of stoats and weasels, which seem to have set. about tlio work of extirpation withoutany unnecessary delay. A rather striking remark is made by a farmer at Rnatiitiri. who that there are only a feiv pheis-anl-s in his district, now. and those that are

there arc " only old cock birds." The reports received show that pheasants now exist jn numbers worth counting in only tho North Island. Tho Poverty Bay district, _on the east, coast of the North Island, is Iho only district- ill which they aro reported as " numerous," and they seem to be working towards the interior. In the few districts where they are at. all nlcntiful thoy aro regarded by agriculturists as a thorough nuisance. A fanner at Parua Bay describes them as 11 the greatest curse settlers have to contend against." At Hokianga they aro " ruination to the farmer and the gardener." They destroy young grass, pull up maize and cat it, and attack potatoes, carrots, beans, peas, barley, wheat, and many kinds of fruit. A strong testimony is given against them by Mr \\. E. Draper, of Waerongn, who thorn with both spneies of introduced quail in the following condemnation:— " I am a largo grower of fruit, sucli as strawberries, grapes, peaches, plums, and so on. The ravage? committed by the pheasants and quail are a serious matter for me. I cannot, offer strawberries for sale with a, piece pecked out. of one side, nor docs it suit me to find the ground bety/cen the rows sprinkled with half-ripe berries bitten off. Tho birds perambulate a row of vines, and completely destroy every grape on a row live or six chains long. When I sow a field of clover the soil is scratched and the seed eaten. If a slop is not put tp tho increase of these pesis no man in his sober senses will embark on fruit culture in country districts infested by them. My opinion is that it is little better than criminal folly io keen a close season for these birds. 1 have counted 25 pheasants on about one acre of potatoes on the lake side, and I have put up 19 on my own place when traversing a distance of 30 chains. Until about nine years ago I supplied strawberries up to the middle of June. The berries come now, as before, but they aro all destroyed by the pheasants and the quail, especially the latter. In former years I have sold in March, April, and May from lOcwt to 15 cwt of straw-

berries. Now they aro all destroyed." Tho two species of quail introduced—tho swamp quail (Syncecus australis) and the Californian quail (Callipepla californica)— have been hardly moro successful than the pheasants. Thoy never increased so readily, however, and their failure is not so marked. Tho Californian quail is still plentiful in some of the North Island districts; where farmers write against its name, " no good." At To Puko, in the, Makelu district, quail live largely on clover, taking both the seed and the young plants in tho bush clearings. Stoats and weasels, cats, poison, and bush fires are their enemies. In regard to Californian quail, a farmer at Ngatimaru says: "I have noticed that this bird wants fairly large tracts of land. It is also better if the land is hilly, and broken with bush and scrub hero, and there. It seems to get on very well on land where there is plenty of bush. On other land it docs well for a time, and then its numbers are decreased, for what reason I do not know, unless it is on account of tho cats, which I think are largely to blame." A farmer in tho Motu district, in the Auckland province, says that quail need more protection, and ho suggests that private owners should proclaim their properties privato sanctuaries, and every third year should be a close one. THE TWO SWANS. ' . There is a very striking contrast between the white 6wan.-ami the black swan in respect to their acclimatisation in. New Zealand. The black swan is near the top of the list of successes, while the white swan has increased slowly and with obvious difficulty, and has sometimes quite failed to establish itself. The black swan, in fact, has shown much greater adaptability than tho othor species, whoso first attempts at incubation in Christchurch and other places were utterly ineffective. The black swan settled down at once to its -new conditions. It was introduced into Canterbury partly with the object of destroying watercress in the Avon, which runs through Ghristchurch. Jn a. few year s the birds had increased largely, but in 1867 many of them forsook the Avon and made long, and rather notable migrations to the wild country on. the West Coast and to Otago, and even Marlborough, Less than 20 were liberated on the Avon at first by the Christchurch City Council. These birds did the work desired from them, asthey cleared a pathway through the watercress for the current. In 1880 there were hundreds of black swans on the- Avon and Halswell Rivers, as well as the Heathcote, as many as 500 sometimes being countedon small areas. They achieved the same success in Otago, where about 60 wero liberated from 1866 to. 1870. B|aCk swans are now found in thousands on lakes, estuaries, .and lagoons in many parts of -the colony, from the extreme north to the far ,south. They keep much to the wild regions. In somo'places they wage a deadly war on the native ■ ducks, taking their food supplies from them and persecuting them -relentlessly! FURTHER INTRODUCTIONS SUGGESTED. A rather striking aspect of the inquiries is that there _is not -the same consensus of opinion against the: introduction of more English birds as there is against those we ta'e already- FurtiM'- ißtrQducJWPl ar 3

.; suggested wilh quite as much confidence s as characterised the first introductions, 40 1 years ago. . a The twenty-eighth question on the cir--5 oular was: "Do jou think that any other ( English birds could bo introduced advan- . tageously? It so, stato the species you 1 favour." The replies show that only- a l few of the correspondents are opposed to further introductions, . although several sound a warning that English birds are liable to change their habits on coining to a new land and living- under new conditions. It is very clear that, sentiment must still be reckoned with. This is shown by the fact that many more votes have been cast m favour of robin redbreast than in favour of any other bird that can be thought of. Ho heads the list of suggested importations of tho future. Jenny Wren is not very far down in tho list, and this may be taken as 'further evidence that - sentiment in regard to the-birds ;of the Old Country is not dead. It, is expected, however, that robin redbreast will be useful as well as ornamental. The swallow comes next to the robin, "then several kinds of martins, then the ploveis, (lie. swift and tho wagtail, in that order. The cuckoo is a general favourite. Other birds named are tho stonechat,-shrike, snipe, more la.pivings and hedgesparrows, flycatcher, tits, titmpusc, white-throat, nightingale (which, by Die way, has only one vote), water-ousels, storks, American flycatcher and kingbird goatsucker, grouse, black cool;, partridge (French and English), jackdaw, nightjar, woodpecker, whinchat, wheatear, pipit, wryneck, jrow, and butcher-bird. I supply this list for what it is worth, and in order to give some indication of the feeling on the subject, The advisability of introducing any of the birds named is a matter that should bo gone into with great, c-are when"definite stops in regard to further importations are contemplated, ami it could hardly bo discussed satisfactorily here. The facts brought to light m rcspect to acclimatisation in Now Zealand arc sufficiently striking to be a warnmg against thoughtless action in the future. It might ho advisable to forbid the importation of any moro foreign birds without. tho sanction of a committee of experts which could bo appointed. ' CONCLUSION. The inquiry has not put 1 an end to the controversy, which, is one of those things that will continue as long as small birds and farmers exist. The lines of demarcation are too faint, and too hard to define, to enable it to be said with any certainty that tho introduction of small birds into this colony was a mistake. The question rests largely upon speculative opinion, and absolute settlement need never be looked for. A great deal of tho eridcnco I have collected is confusing, and a little of it ia obviously the outcome of prejudice and bitter enmity, "here is, however, less ofthis than I expected. For tho most part, the conclusions arrived at by the hundreds of correspondents who have returned the oirculars are based upon actual observations extending over 30 or 40 years. Many of those who went to tho troublo of filling in the circulars are in the advantageous position of having known the small birds' both at Home anil in tho colonics, and tliny are in a good position to make comparisons, and note changes that have taken place in the birds' habits. In some cases considerable troublo has been taken, i the circulars being accompanied by long letters. _ By the adoption of this system of seeking information men have been ] reached who would never' have imparted | their knowledge in any other way. Soveral of the correspondents have been good 1 enough to commend tho system. They ( have expressed their willingness io supply ; more detailed information, if desired, and ; they suggest that the system should ho i cxlended Io other subjects' that interest tiie < agriculturist, t

The evidence has been weighed carefully, and in forming conclusions I have endeavoured to bo just to men and birds alike. The summary of the results, /it any rate, is impartial, and I think I can claim that on tho prominent points of the controversy a consensus of export opinion throughout the colony is now placed at the disposal of all who wisli to have it. I have to thank Mr T. W. Kirk. Government Biologist, for his kindness in seeing that- the circulars were distributed, and in having tho replies sent to. mo,