AUGUST. 151 



III. 



What comes of so many of our birds during the winter 

 season, and what causes them to migrate from one part of 

 the country to another ? No doubt the main cause of their 

 movements is the abundance or scarcity of their food supply, 

 but it shows how little we know of these questions, and 

 now few persons keep any record of the facts of such cases, 

 that so little information on the subject is available. Any 

 mere effort of memory is not sufficiently trustworthy; what 

 is wanted is a note of facts taken at the time. About 

 thirty years ago, when living at the edge of a large bush 

 in the Southland district, I used to keep a daily note of the 

 birds which were met with, even the commonest. Though 

 the record was broken on leaving the district to come to 

 Dunedin, it was most interesting to look back on it in after 

 years, and call up again the reminiscences of these early 

 and rough days. I note, among other things, the total 

 absence of the introduced species of birds which are now 

 so common here. A few birds of various foreign kinds 

 were liberated in this part of the colony before 1868, but 

 it was in that and the following years that the Otago 

 Acclimatisation Society did most of their work of intro- 

 ducing birds. Whether we ought to thank or anathematise 

 the Society is still a matter of opinion. 



So it was that when living at Mabel Bush, in Southland, 

 we daily had the robins and torn-tits about the garden, 

 while the pied and black fantails almost lived in the 

 house, coming into the rooms to look for flies and spiders 

 whenever the windows were open. We were awakened 

 in the early mornings by the melodious concert of the 

 tuis, horimakos, canaries, and other bush birds, singing 

 their morning hymn. Kakas and wood pigeons abounded, 

 and wekas used to dodge round the very doors in search 

 of unconsidered trifles. The kakas used to tear the thatch 

 off the stacks and let the rain in, and they and the para- 

 keets were our chief enemies both in the cornfield and in 

 the garden. At night the quaint cry of the moreporks 

 was extremely common, and sometimes very eerie, as they 

 called to each other from grove to grove. 



