PROTECTION OF NATIVE BIRDS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20764, 9 July 1929, Page 13

PROTECTION OF NATIVE BIRDS.

TO THE EDITOR, Sib,—l was pleased to see a letter in Mr U c t S Wii e ° f the -. Daily Times from lUr U A. Wilson, president of the Otaao Acclimatisation Society, as defending fiTppiH tlje V6 m’ l l n ? a!,p d-for and untruthi! H, r Cl | SlnS t la r lave appeared of late columns^of vour paper. It is not veiy encouraging for gentlemen who spend a very considerable amount of time n their endeavour to protect the bird Me of this country to have such reflections hurled at them. Tim stringent regulations that now exist in regard to the taking or killing ot native and imported game are due entirely to the efforts of the different aedi-

malisation societies. The sanctuaries that we now have throughout New Zealand prove that the different societies are out to protect our birds. For years they have tried to persuade the Government to remove the protection of the stoat, which is a deadly enemy of bird life, and they have also been the means of destroying thousands of hawks. But, despite the efforts of acclimatisation eonieiies, and the so-called Bird Protection Society, it seems impossible to etaY thts slow but sure extinction of many of our beautiful native birds. It "8 remarkable that one should survive and another disappear. Take, for example, the tomtit and robin, which arc very closely allied. Both these birds live under the same conditions, and both eat the same food; yet, strange to say. the robin is almost extinct, except in a few isolated places, while- the tomtit is as 7>lentifuJ as ever.- The same applies to the tui and the bellbird. These birds art; both nectar eaters, and also eat the same berries. The tui.is fast disappearing, and the bellbird is still plentiful ovcrywhote. Then take, the brown creeper and the bush canary. Both these biros have the same method of existence, both traverse the bush in small bands, ana eat the same insects and berries The brown creeper is still plentiful in nearly every bush, but the bush' canary nas said good-bye. I could relate many such instances, including the kea and kaka. Can anyone give a solution 01 these strange facts? Perhaps the so-called Bird Protection Society will give us some light on the subject.—l am. ote -' W. G. r;