EASTERN CARGO

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 759, 4 September 1929, Page 9

EASTERN CARGO

Strange Merchandise on Narbada RARE BIRDS’ QUAINT DIET Although there are no ivory, apes or peacocks on the Narbada she carries almost every other product of the East. Castor oil and beautiful brasses, Eastern toys and woolpacks. are to be found in the hold of this \es&cl which reached Auckland this morning j from Calcutta. . ! But by far the most beautiful part j of the Narbada's cargo is an aviary • of some hundreds of birds, housed m cages over the stern. Many of the ; more beautiful varieties are for Auck- ■ land aviaries, but the partridges and . chukor are to be liberated by the Ac- i climatisation Society in the Auckland , Province and will no doubt provide good sport during the next few years. . Quaint food had to be provided for ] the birds on their long journey to | New Zealand. For instance. the j lories, a beautiful species ol parrot, had to be fed daily on milk and , honey ar d Mellins food. The zosterops, tiny "little birds like pieces of swiftmoving, coloured cloth, had as a daily diet slices of papaya and banana and bread and sweet milk. .Munias and some varieties of delicate finches were given meals of dried flies, chopped egg and lettuce leaf; the more liardy birds required millet seed and grain. About 350 quail looked as though they had enjoyed their trip, but some | of them were obviously suffering from ; the change of climate. The chukor, a variety of Indian partridge from the hill country, is an imported bird which is doing well in the warmer parts of the Dominion. Some have already been liberated in the Tongariro National Park and find food and safety in the undergrowth there. Included in the Narbada’s consignment of birds are several wydahs, the males of which have long, gleamingblack tail feathers, weaver birds of different kinds, Java sparrows, several of which are pure white with bright pink bills, waxbills, avadavats, two beautiful blue budgerigars, some tiny grey spotted doves, and a pigeon with a delicately blue-spotted breast. Transport of rare- birds to New Zealand from the tropics is always a delicate undertaking, but the officers of the ship in charge ot this collection have been most successful. A few of the birds have died, but this was to be expected. The birds must necessarily be confined in small cages, but the changes of weather always encountered on the voyage sometimes arc too much for these feathered folk from the tropics. However, this consignment seeins to have fared better than several former ones. Apart from the birds the Narbada’s cargo is a rich and varied one and contains merchandise of all kinds from the markets of the East. There arcbales of wool-packs and other hessian goods, castor oil and tapioca, sago, rice and nutmegs, tinned pineapple and kapok, mats woven in the bazaars of India and Malay, hemp i and bone-meal. ! There are toys, too. and brasses and 1 other ornaments cunningly wrought , by workmen who bend all day over < their tools in the quaint little cubicles 1 which line back street* in the cities 1 of India.