Drummokd. — On Introduced Birds. 247 



be avinecl with compulsory powers, so that it could compel all 

 farmers in one district to act in unison. This is the scheme 

 favoured by the officers of the Department, and it is likely that 

 an attempt will be made to bri}ig it into operation. 



Pheasants and Quail. 

 The common pheasant {Phasianus colchicus) and the ring- 

 necked pheasant {Phasianus torquatus) have had a strange and 

 eventful history in this country. At first their acclimatisation 

 was a notable and almost an unqualified success. Thev suc- 

 ceeded wherever they w^ere introduced, increasing very rapidly 

 and rearing healthy and hardy broods of young. One of the 

 first successes was achieved by Sir Frederick Weld in 1865, 

 when he established the common pheasant in Canterbury. 

 Other importations into that province followed, the acclimati- 

 sation society bringing out fairly large numbers. In 1868 it 

 bred forty birds and sold them to members for £2 a pair. In 

 the tussock-covered land of Canterbury they thrived specially 

 well, and the large Cheviot Estate, then held by the Hon. W. 

 Robinson, was soon stocked with them. Mr. Robinson spared 

 no expense in preparing for their reception when he arranged 

 for a consignment, supplied by the society. He erected large 

 commodious aviaries, ordered that all the native cats on the 

 estate should be killed, nearly extirpated the wekas, and had 

 the hawks destroyed at the rate of six a day. The society 

 continued to import pheasants for a considerable time. It bred 

 about a hundred birds in a year, and obtained a fairly good 

 income by selling them to the owners of large estates. It seemed 

 as if pheasants would, in a few years, spread throughout both 

 Islands and become thoroughly naturalised. After this had gone 

 on for some time the birds received a decided check. Their 

 numbers neither increased nor decreased. Then they began to 

 decrease rapidly and, apparently, almost simultaneously in many 

 districts. Their complete failure, taking the colony as a whole, 

 is now beyond doubt. In Canterbury and other provinces where 

 they were once exceedingly plentiful they are never seen at all. 

 " Once plentiful, but decreasing or disappeared," are the words 

 generally written against them in the. circulars. This result, 

 which is very regrettable from the sportsman's point of view, 

 is attributed to the laying of poison for rabbits, to the depre- 

 dations of stoats, weasels, and wild cats, to bush fires, and, 

 in a lesser degree, to the pheasants' food-supplies being eaten 

 by the smaller introduced birds. It is stated that the wekas, 

 as well as the stoats and weasels, eat pheasants' eggs. The 

 birds are decreasing as rapidly in districts where there is plenty 

 of cover as in districts where there is little or none. The destruc- 



