THE FERNBIRD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27040, 26 March 1949, Page 6

THE FERNBIRD

Wild Life In Otago

■ v ~“ Written for the Daily Times r; ‘ By L. E. Richdale A paragraph in the Otago Daily ■ Times of March 9 last states that : “since large areas of swamp land have been drained and cultivated in this country, the Fembird has become increasingly rare. ...” Generally speaking, the Fernbird is now relatively ■ rare, but is the inference that the •Fernbird has always been an in--habitant of the swamps correct? Could

the position not have been that the Fernbird once occupied dry areas as well as swamps but was quickly driven from the former by early colonisation and was therefore left in swampy places? To me. this seems to be what has happened. When Mr Denham and I camped on Big South Cape Island off the south-vsest corner of Stewart Island, we frequently saw Fernbirds. Most of these were occupying the extremely dry sub-alpine carpet vegetation of the top of the island, which is fully 1000 feet in altitude. There were hundreds of acres of this type of country. Again, on the Snares Islands, Fernbirds were everywhere and according to our calculations existed at the rate of four breeding pairs to the acre, which is rather a dense population. The Fernbirds certainly do not congregate only on the damp parts of the Snares and leave the dry areas uninhabited.