LiFFiTON. — On the Decrease of Plieasants. 225 



Art. XXIII. — Notes on the Decrease of Pheasants on the 

 West Coast of the North Island. 



By Edward N. Lifpiton. 



[Bead before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 17th October, 1888.] 



That the pheasant has to a great extent disappeared from the 

 more settled portions of the Wanganui district, where it was 

 formerly plentiful, is an admitted fact ; but the causes of that 

 fact are a matter that may be well considered open for discus- 

 sion. The primary cause is, I think, the great increase of the 

 weka, and the predilection these birds have acquired for 

 eggs. When the pheasants were first introduced into the dis- 

 trict they soon increased, and in a few years large bags could 

 be obtained. But at that time the natives lived at many small 

 settlements interspersed, as it were, among the whites ; these 

 natives kept a large number of dogs, which were scantily fed, and 

 which, being driven to forage for themselves, lived principally 

 on the weka. The dogs disappeared with the Natives : and to 

 this cause, and also to the large increase of furze hedges, may 

 be attributed the abnormal number of wekas that may be seen 

 any dusky evening in the country; for the furze hedges swarm 

 with them. Now, it is well known that wekas are very fond of 

 eggs, and during the last ten years it is the experience of many 

 farmers' wives that they can get no eggs at all unless the 

 fowls are kept shut up until they have laid ; for all nests that 

 were made even quite close to the homestead were and are 

 speedily destroyed, the eggs being eaten by the weka. Wherever 

 the natives are settled it is noticed that there are plenty of 

 pheasants. The habit of keeping a lot of dogs and hardly 

 feeding them at all, thus forcing the dogs to hunt for them- 

 selves, and there being generally less furze at native settle- 

 ments, the wekas cannot so readily escape, and they are thus 

 kept from unduly increasing. When the wekas first acquired 

 a taste for eggs is a matter for conjecture. Is it in their case 

 as with the ^^a! % penchant for kidney-fat, and the Nelson parra- 

 keet's proclivity for cherries ? I am rather inclined to think it 

 is, but I have no proof. Certainly hens' eggs were not destroyed 

 twenty years ago as they are now, for fowls were allowed to 

 run and breed anywhere. And here it might be asked, how do 

 the wekas discriminate between the eggs of their own tribe 

 and those of other birds ? Is it because they cover them ? or 

 do they distinguish ? 



Then there are other reasons : hawks attack the young and 

 sometimes the adult pheasant ; rats no doubt assist in eating 

 the eggs ; and in those districts where poisoned grain is used 

 it goes without saying the pheasant soon disappears. And in 



