INTRODUCTION 23 



the indigenous fauna with which they are brought 

 most closely in contact ; and we may here take 

 the opportunity of protesting most strongly 

 against that introduction of various foreign birds 

 into our islands which has been suggested by more 

 than one naturalist, philosophic enough, one would 

 think, to realise the inevitable consequences, more 

 especially so with such unhappy examples of "ac- 

 climatisation" before them. The House Sparrow, 

 to quote but a single instance, was imported into 

 America as a welcome novelty and souvenir of the 

 Old Country ; it has now become such a pest that 

 a fruitless war of extermination is almost every- 

 where waged against it, and the bird in not a few 

 places has succeeded in ousting indigenous and 

 far more interesting and useful species. 



In the absence of all historical evidence, and 

 with nothing but tradition and legend to guide us, 

 it is impossible to form any correct estimate of the 

 number of avine species that has been extermin- 

 ated by uncivilised races of mankind. We have, 

 however, some comparatively recent evidence 

 furnished by the Maoris of New Zealand, whose 

 traditions relating to certain species of gigantic 

 wingless birds of that country, known as " Moas," 

 are of exceptional interest. From information 



