BIRD SANCTUARIES OF NEW ZEALAND.'' 



New Zealand has done two things thoroughly, as the following 

 paper from The Argus of July 23, 1904, will show. One of these 

 is to preserve those wingless birds so characteristic of the country, 

 and Avhich, because of their helplessness, would soon disappear as 

 settlement increased; the other is to acclimatize the best game of 

 other countries. Thus, in turning Canadian moose in their moun- 

 tains, they brought a Canadian forester to look after the young 

 calves, and a Scotch gamekeeper is now engaged in attending to the 

 grouse. Resolution Island, in Dusky Sound, West Coast, discovered 

 by Captain Cook, is named after one of the ships in which Cook made 

 his first voyage. There is material for a charming little book on 

 nature in this official document, the last place a Victorian, knowing 

 something of the character of his own government reports, would 

 look for it. And Mr. Henry's chat about the birds which are in his 

 charge and have become, in some instances, his pets and friends, is so 

 homely, so sympathetic, shows so much of close and loving observa- 

 tion, that something material to the literature of nature in New Zea- 

 land Avould have been lost had the notes not been published. 



The wingless birds that are being given sanctuary on Resolution 

 Island are the weka, or wood hen {Oeydromus ai(stralis), the kakapo, 

 or great ground parrot {Stringops hahrojytilus) ^ the roa {Apteryx 

 luKistl)^ and the kiwi, or apteryx (Apterjjx oweni). In addition to 

 these, which are his special charge, Mr. Henry writes of all the birds 

 which are either native to or visit the island. It is the wingless ones, 

 however, that are of chief interest. Had New Zealand possessed 

 among its native fauna any destructive animals, such as the Austra- 

 lian dingo or the Tasmanian devil, these birds would have been 

 extinct long ago. In settled country both dogs and cats play havoc 

 with them, and the English weasel, which, as Mr. Henry observes, 

 would never have been introduced had its habits been known thor- 

 oughly, is also destructive. When rabbits became such a nuisance 

 that poisoned wheat was laid for them, some of the wingless birds 

 were killed in thousands, like the English pheasants, which have 

 been so successfully acclimatized. In many of the public reserves of 



« Reprinted, by permission, from The Emu, Melbourne, October, 1904. 



419 



