498 Transactions. 



and valleys of Otago he is very scarce. He is disappearing 

 from Ashburton, West Oxford, and Tauranga, and is considered 

 extinct at Wairio and other places. 



Our striped rail, water-crake, and swamp-crake, with the 

 bittern and the pukeko, remain only in such portions of our 

 islands as are undrained so far as swamp exists. Mr. Hamilton 

 reported them common at Petane in 1885, and I quote from 

 the Trans. New Zealand Inst. : " A cat belonging to a neigh- 

 bour has brought me in during the years 1881-1883 seventeen 

 specimens of this crake and twelve specimens of the next species 

 (Tabuensis). Both of these birds abound in the raupo swamps 

 of the district, but are extremely difficult to obtain unless a 

 friendly mouser takes the matter in hand." If one cat could 

 do this damage twenty-three years ago there is little wonder 

 that these birds are now seldom seen. 



Whether our takahe still remains deep in the fastnesses of 

 the West Coast time alone will show. Probably in some of the 

 yet untrodden millions of acres of south-west Otago we shall 

 light upon him. He is much too big and powerful for the 

 weasel, so that if he is in the forests at this day he will remain 

 till such time as man and dog rout him out. 



The pukeko, a conspicuous bird, with slow laborious flight, 

 is fast going — his swamps extensively drained, his nests easily 

 found. To a great extent gregarious and easily potted in 

 numbers, slow and stupid in getting out of range, exchanging 

 his original diet of lizards, worms, and small birds' eggs for 

 the product of the farmyard and paddock, he falls a prev to 

 poisoned grain and gunshot. He is still found fairly common 

 in the great swamps of the north, but near habitations he is 

 very rare. I see he is plentiful near Wanaka, and is blamed for 

 a lot of egg-stealing ; and at Parua Bay he is credited with 

 destroying crops of maize. He is on the increase at Waimate, 

 Streamlands, and Waikaka Valley, and is held as common at 

 Ramarama, but elsewhere throughout the Islands he is very 

 scarce. Grain- poisoning caused his downfall ; where such has 

 been abandoned he shows signs of increase. 



There remain our ducks — those beautiful birds which we 

 allow to be slaughtered year after year. Our blue-duck still 

 exists in North Canterbury in great numbers, and on some of 

 the inaccessible inland lakes and in the Maruia Forest may be 

 found nesting in trees 20 ft. or 30 ft. from the nearest creek. It 

 seems a pity that numbers of our inland lakes are not made 

 sanctuaries, and stiff fines imposed on Law-breakers. I think 

 the " sport," who represents a very small proportion of our 

 people, should have his daily bag curtailed — say, three to six 

 pairs of grey-duck, teal, or paradise ; or, if popular feeling 



