PROTECT OUR FAUNA.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1426, 13 November 1923, Page 2

PROTECT OUR FAUNA.

BIRD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND.

(Contributed.)

The bird life of New Zealand is one of its most attractive and desirable assets. The early explorers testified to the amazing number of birds whose melodious song greeted them when they first anchored off the coast, and in a passage which has become classic Captain Cook described the beautiful chorus of- the bell birds poured at dawn from innumerable throats. It was inevitable that the colonisation ,ot' New Zealand should mean not only the destruction by axe and fire of the homes and haunts of. the native birds, but also the importation of animals that preyed upon bird life. The effect has been exhibited in the fears which from time to time have been expressed that several of the rarer and most characteristic New Zealand birds are in danger of disappearing altogether. Recently a more hopeful note has been sounded, and close observers of the bird life of the country have not hesitated to offer the opinion that many of the birds have so adapted themselves to the altered conditions as to be re-establishing themselves. It will be a matter for great satisfaction if confirmation is received of these encouraging signs that the reduction in number of some at least of the native birds has been arrested, but it would be foolish to suppose that any relaxation of effort in the protection of the bird life of the Dominion is permissible. Speaking on the subject in the Legislative Council during the recent session Sir Thomas Mackenzie emphasised the importance of the preservation of the native birds, pointing out that, in addition to their making New Zealand " ornithologically the most interesting country in the world," they form a link between the present and the remote past. Many of them are delightful songsters, and to their beauty and charm is added the virtue of usefulness. From an artistic, a scientific, and a utilitarian viewpoint, therefore, there is every reason why measures for the preservation of the native birds of New Zealand should receive the earnest support of the public. It is a remarkable fact, as well as a tribute to the power of adaptation possessed by the native birds, that, originally dwellers in bush and forest, they have, as the cities have grown, learned to frequent gardens attached to the homes of mankind. Mr H. Guthrie Smith, a close observer of bird life, refers to the friendly disposition of the which, " with a little encouragement, would become a charming addition to every country garden." 'He declares that in the nest the bell-bird is extraordinarily fearless, and often chooses a spot for nesting within a few yards of a duelling. Many gardens are visited by the bell-bird, and Mr Smith suggests that the planting in gardens of shrubs yielding the nectar and the berries on which the birds feed would A be labour well repaid. The scientific side of bird preservation, while interesting perhaps only to the minority, is of extreme value. "The birds of our islands," wrote Mr W. P. Reeves, " by their variety and singularity, atone for the almost complete absence of four-footed animals. The most curious are the -flightless kinds —they roa, the grey kiwi, the takahe, the flightless duck of the Aucklands, the kakapo, and the weka—our chief scientific treasures. Some of our ground birds have the further claim on the attention of science that they are the relatives of the extinct and gigantic moa." Unfortunately it is these curious survivals of a remote past which ; are in the greatest danger of extinction Their future can be in a measure secured by means of the establishment of sanctuaries in which they will be protected from the menace of imported pests. At the present time there are three of these sanctuaries — Resolution Island, off Dusky Sound; Kapiti Island, in Cook Strait; and the Little Barrier Island, at the mouth of the Hauraki Gulf. Recent accounts suggest that Kapiti Island promises to prove a very valuable sanctuary. That it and the other islands upon Which reserves for birds have been created shall be sanctuaries in fact and not only in name constitutes an obligation upon the Government, and it seems to us also to be desirable that the question whether the number of sanctuaries should not be increased in the interests of bird-life merits consideration. The utilitarian value of the birds of New Zealand is perhaps not sufficiently realised. How many people are aware, for instance, that the pretty little fantaile whose friendliness is even greater than that of the bell-bird, wage incessant warfare on the mosquito and the sandfly, even entering houses and other buildings and hunting systematically for house flies? There is an authentic record of the case of a fantail which was regularly let in at the front door of a dwelling house and allowed to depart when it had cleared the prem-

isee by its daily catch of flies. Nearly all the small birds of New Zealand are insectivorous, but the grey warbleT, commonly called the riro-riro, in imitation of its beautifully trilled note, is exclusively so. The rate at which these warblers will destroy insects is regarded as truly marvellous, plant lice, caterpillars* land moths toeing devoured with avidity. It is the presence of these insectivorous birds which makes impossible in New Zealand the picture of desolation drawn by Longfellow in "The Birds of KII--g worth ":

In the orchards fed Myriads of caterpillars, and around The cultivated fields and garden beds Hosts of devouring insects crawled and found No foe to check their march, till tJhey had made The land a desert without leaf or shade. Regarded from any and every point of view, the preservation of the native birds of New Zealand should be as much a source of pleasure as it is a manifest duty. Incidentally it may be noted that the imported skylark, apostrophised by Shelley and Wordsworth in unforgettable lines, is denounced by Messrs G. Myers and E. Atkinson in a recent article in the Journal of Agriculture as " the most injurious bird in New Zealand," and as one " which should never (have been introduced." Respecting the native birds, the same authorities write: " The annual loss to this country through the damage wrought by insect pests is estimated at several million pounds, and unquestionably the greatest factor in the prevention of the increase of that damage to an extreme extent is the activity of birdlife."