24:4 Transactions. 



is made against the starling in Australia. It is stated that 

 valuable native insect-eating birds, such as kingfishers, diamond- 

 birds, tree-swallows, and tree-creepers, are being turned out of 

 their nesting-places in tree-hollows by swarms of starlings, " and 

 before long," the report continues, " these birds, so useful to the 

 farmers, will be driven out of the country." The starling in 

 Australia is supposed to raise five broods in the year, and it 

 multiplies with amazing rapidity — much more rapidly, evidently, 

 than in New Zealand. Before leaving the starlings, I should 

 like to point out that Mr. W. W. Smith, in a letter to the Lyttelton 

 Times, a few years ago, reported that they killed of? large numbers 

 of humble-bees, which the birds captured in order to give to 

 their young. " Like the native tui," Mr. Smith writes, " the 

 starling now frequents the flax flats and sucks the honey from 

 the richly mellifluous flowers of the plant. It is quite probable 

 that the eating of the bees' honey-sac by the starling developed 

 a taste for honey in these birds. Both the starling and the tui 

 are birds of high intelligence. Their newly acquired habits are 

 important as illustrating how the penchant for fresh food is 

 developed in some species." These facts point to the great 

 need for caution when fresh importations are being considered. 



The Small Birds as a Company. 



A mass of evidence is brought forward against the company 

 of small birds as a whole, apart from individual species. Most 

 of the information on this point is supplied in reply to the 

 eighteenth question on the circular, which is as folk ws : " Gene- 

 rally speaking, have the introduced birds done more good than 

 harm or more harm than good V A typical reply is from Wai- 

 rere, Wairarapa North : " As with most aliens, it would be better 

 if they had stayed at home." The same sentiment is expressed 

 in other words many times. Oi\e correspondent says that the 

 introduction of English birds, taking them together, was " a 

 terrible mistake." Another saj's, " For goodness' sake don't 

 make it worse by importing any more of them." A fruit- 

 grower at Patutahi, Poverty Bay, declines to give his views, as 

 the space left in the circular for the reply to the question is far 

 too limited to enable him to say all that he wants to say. 



The Lower Hutt, in the Wellington District, is a market- 

 gardening centre, and the following catalogue of grievances, 

 together with the general sweeping statement, seems to show 

 that small birds are particularly numerous there : " One acre 

 of cabbage and cauliflower plants destroyed entirely last year ; 

 vegetable - garden seeds picked out, necessitating netting ; cur- 

 rants entirely eaten up ; canmt ripen one gooseberry ; rasp- 



