224 EXTERMINATION 



N. produdus, seems to have been confined to Phillip Island. The 

 last known to have lived, according to information supplied to the 

 present writer by Gould, was seen by that gentleman in a cage in 

 London about the year 1851. Not many more than a dozen 

 specimens are believed to exist in collections. 



In respect of Extermination leading immediately to Extinction, 

 the present condition of the New-Zealand Fauna is one that must 

 grieve to the utmost every ornithologist who cares for more than 

 the stuffed skin of a bird on a shelf. In the Fauna of that 

 Region the Class Aves holds the highest rank^ (Geographical 

 Distribution), and though its mightiest members (Moa) had 

 passed away before the settlement of Avhite men, what was left of 

 its Avifauna had featui-es of interest unsurpassed by any others. 

 It was indeed long before these features were appreciated, and 

 then by but few ornithologists, yet no sooner was their value 

 recognized than it was found that nearly all of their possessors 

 were rapidly expiring, and the destruction of the original Avifauna 

 of this important colony, so thriving and so intellectual, is being 

 attended by circumstances of extraordinary atrocity. Under the 

 evil influence of what was some thirty years ago called "Accli- 

 matization," not only were all sorts of birds introduced, which 

 being of strong species speedily established themselves ^ with the 

 usual efiect on the weak aboriginals, but in an evil day Eabbits 

 were liberated. These, as was anticipated by zoologists, soon 

 became numerous beyond measure and devoured the pasture 

 destined for the Sheep, on which so much of the prosperity of the 

 country depended. Allowing for a considerable amount of 

 exaggeration on the part of the Sheep-owners, no one can doubt 

 that the Eabbit-plague has inflicted a serious loss on the colony. 

 Yet a remedy may be woi'se than a disease, and the so-called 

 remedy applied in this case has been of a kind that every true 

 naturalist knew to be most foolish, namely the importation from 

 England and elsewhere and liberation of divers carnivorous Mam- 

 mals ^ — Polecats or Ferrets, Stoats, and Weasels ! Two "vvrongs do 

 not make a right even at the Antipodes, and from the most authentic 

 reports it seems, as any zoologist of common sense would have 



^ The various reports of an indigenous Mammal, to which some writers have 

 attached importance, seem to be all due to misconception on the part of persons 

 who did not know how very like a quadruped a Kiwi or a Weka can look when 

 thick herbage or broken ground hinders a clear view. 



2 Sir Walter Buller has told me that within some miles of the larger towns 

 not a single native species of bird is now to be seen, while foreigners abound. 



^ Unhappily when the idea of sending out these predacious creatures was 

 first promulgated, it was encouraged by one who passed in England for a gi'eat 

 naturalist. Well-informed persons knew better, but their warnings were 

 slighted. 



