Correspondence.



181



“I’ve been a bird man all my life,” said Mr. Clouston, “and have

travelled all over New Zealand, and have never seen anything like it. It is

really a wonderful discovery from a scientific point of view, and will mean the

preservation of the various species. These birds I have with me are to be

liberated on the Little Barrier Island, which, of course, is a sanctuary.


“ Not only are there kiwis and kapapos on the block, but there are blue

mountain duck by the dozen, saddlebacks (worth £10 each), New Zealand robins,

wren’s, owls, Cook’s petrel’s (rain bird), keas, kakas, tui, mako-makos, warblers,

riflemen, creepers (very rare), Maori hens, fantails, tomtits, and pigeons. It

was a harvest of rarities. The kiwis are there because the feed is good. We

found great worms from 4ft. to 5ft. in length. The longest one I measured was

4ft. lOin.


“ As soon as I found them I communicated with Sir Francis Bell, and

asked him to have the block—it is Crown land—declared a sanctuary, and that

has been done. It was gazetted some ten days ago. In the meantime the find

had got about and the place has been visited by men interested in bird-life,

among them Mr. James Drummond and Mr. Edgar Stead, of Christchurch,

Professor Cotton, Dr. Thompson 'of the Dominion Museum', and Mr. Fred.

Sparrow, and they are all as enthusiastic as I am.


“ I have made a pet of one of the big kakapos. He stands 3ft. high,

weighs 221b. and has got an enormous beak, but he allows the children to feed

him out of hand. He’s a beauty, pale green plumage with long whiskers, and

when he’s up a tree you can’t tell him from moss on the trunks—natural

protection again.”


Mr. Coulston says that the birds are so valuable that the sanctuary will

have to be given adequate protection at once, else there will be wholesale poach¬

ing by those prepared to trade on Mr. Clouston’s discovery.


We are also indebted to the “Emu” for the following:—


BIRDS OF A MURRAY ISLAND.


By Charles Barrett, C.M.Z.S., Melbourne (Vic.)


During a brief holiday in November, 1915, at Kulkyne station, about 50

miles from Mildura, I spent many pleasant hours among the birds on a small

island opposite the homestead. The Station Creek flows along one side, junc-

tioning with an extensive billabong at the eastern end of a long strip of slightly

elevated land, and with the Murray River at the other. The islet, which is the

shape of a boomerang, is covered in parts with a prickly shrub locally known as

“ native box thorn ” ; here and there are small trees, acacias and eucalypts, and

some fine old red gums along the water’s edge, where rushes and grassy areas

provide good cover for snakes.


In a space beneath a big clump of “ box thorn ” was the bower of a pair

of Spotted bower-birds (Chlamyclera maculata ). Mr. C. Thompson, manager of

the station, who is keenly interested in birds, stated that the bower had been



