BuLiLEK — Oil New Zealand Ornithology . 329 



your Institute compels me to give you this timely notice. It 

 is too annoying to think that the fate of your fauna should 

 depend on the rash act of the greatest fool that was ever 

 called a naturalist." 



Mr. J. Brough informs me that, owing principally to the 

 introduction of stoats, the Grey Kiwi has now entirely vanished 

 from wooded districts near Nelson, where formerly it was so 

 abundant that he has collected a score in a single locality. 



From all parts of the country I continue to receive reports 

 of the ravages of stoats and weasels. From Nelson Mr. R. I. 

 Kingsley writes to me, " I hear there is a likelihood of stoats 

 and weasels being turned out by the Government at West 

 Wanganui. It will be a great shame if they are, as it will 

 mean destruction to the Big Kiwi ; and the rabbits at West 

 Wanganui are only found on a small strip of sandy beach. 

 They have been there for many years and never spread; 

 therefore they could easily be destroyed by other means. 

 Could you not speak a word to avert the danger ? " 



It seems to me that the only chance of arresting this 

 deplorable evil is by directing public opinion against it. Un- 

 fortunately, most people are indifferent about it, and the 

 Government yields to the clamour of a few faddists whose 

 one idea is to exterminate the rabbits at any cost to the 

 country. We have no guarantee, however, that these animals 

 will suppress the rabbit nuisance, whilst we have the most 

 positive evidence that, as in every other country they inhabit, 

 they are themselves proving a curse in New Zealand. Mr. 

 William Townson, of Westport, wrote me some time ago, 

 saying, " I am told by bushmen and diggers living back in 

 the ranges that it is becoming quite common now to see Grey 

 Kiwis lying dead about the bush. The weasels are blamed 

 for this, as they are now fully establishevd on the coast as far 

 south as Ross and Okarita. Indeed, several have been seen 

 in this district. I fear that all the ground-game and native 

 birds will fall victims to these little bloodsuckers. In this 

 part of the country we have no rabbits to engage their atten- 

 tion." 



It may be said, in reply to this, that there is no direct 

 evidence that the dead Kiwis were the victims of these 

 marauders ; but, as a matter of fact, birds do not die 

 about the woods of their own accord, and their partial 

 mutilation generally tells its own tale. It is very remark- 

 able, indeed, how seldom one finds the bodies of birds 

 or mannnals that have apparently died a natural death. 

 In New Zealand, casting my mmd back over a period of 

 five-and-thirty years, I can count on the fingers of one 

 hand the cases in which I have found the bodies of birds 

 dead from natural causes. Of course, I do not refer to 



