168 Transactions. 



respecting the native birds, and ascertained that the whitehead was 

 numerous on the forest-clad ranges whence rise the tributaries of the Motu 

 River, flowing into the Bay of Plenty. During the last two years I have 

 also learned of its occurrence in several other localities, Avhich should remain 

 tapued against avaricious and merciless collectors. In former years the 

 Maoris were great lovers of tamed and caged birds, but only once, after 

 numerous inquiries, have I been able to learn of a caged saddleback having 

 been kept in a Native kainga or village. The older Maoris of the present 

 time also assert that the tieke, or saddleback, was a very difficult bird to 

 snare. 



The rapid extinction of this beautiful species of native starling is to me 

 more remarkable than those extinct and expiring species belonging to the 

 New Zealand avifauna. Being strictly a forest-dwelling bird, subsisting on a 

 variety of larvae and insects occurring only in the forest, it was apparentlv 

 naturally unfitted to change its habits to search for and subsist on other 

 varieties of larvae and insects procurable in the open country. Since 

 improved methods of tillage were introduced by the Taranaki settlers, as 

 in other provinces, several species of native cockchafer beetles {Odontria) 

 have increased, as elsewhere in New Zealand, at an unprecedented rate. 

 As the larvae increase in size, and the grass they attack withers, they 

 attract flights of the introduced English starling and the Indian or Eastern 

 minah (Acridothercs tristis). With the abundance of larval food on the 

 rich grass lands in the extensive dairying country of Taranaki the starling 

 has increased in such vast numbers as to materially affect the numbers and 

 well-being of the minah. The starlings repair every evening, in flights of 

 several thousands in each, to Moturoa Island, a rugged precipitous rock 

 in the sea nearly a mile from the shore, situated about two miles south of 

 New Plymouth. 



In the South Island the starlings roost during the night on Eucalyptus, 

 or Australian gum-trees, and in fissures of limestone rocks in many districts. 

 I observe that the minahs prefer to remain closer to the great forest belt or 

 national forest reserve, an area of native forest six miles broad extending all 

 around the base of the extinct volcanic cone of Mount Egmont, in Taranaki. 

 Thus we note that, whilst these introduced species flourish on the abundant 

 and excellent food procurable in the open country, the native tieke, or 

 saddleback, seems to be naturally unfitted to do so, with the inevitable 

 result that the beautiful species has become or is rapidly becoming extinct. 



As with other vanished and vanishing species of New Zealand's unique 

 native birds, so with the tieke. All we can possibly do is to faithfully 

 record all facts relating to their habits which have been and are procurable 

 in our tie. 



