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CHAPTER XIV. 



THE AVIFAUNA OF THE STATION PRIOR TO SETTLEMENT. 



IN regard to the immediate past there is no reason to believe that in 

 actual number of breeding species there has been any decrease. On a 

 run so full of crags, impenetrable gorges, and deep river-beds, possibili- 

 ties of concealment and escape are almost unlimited. The difference 

 between now and then lies not in reduction of species but in reduction 

 of individual birds. Undoubtedly 

 there has been a very great dimin- 

 ution in the aggregate numbers. 

 There are probably not ten birds 

 now for every thousand there used 

 to be immediately prior to settle- 

 ment. 



There had, however, existed 

 say within a century or two other 

 species. The older resident natives 

 knew of them by tradition ; they 

 knew their Maori names. From 

 hearsay they could, with a fair de- 

 gree of accuracy, describe their 



habits. They recognised with expressions of delight their coloured 

 representations as depicted in Buller's illustrated volumes. Thus I 

 learnt that the Blue Wattled Crow (Glcmcopis Wilsoni), a breed, 

 until the forest was felled, extremely plentiful on the coastal forest 

 between Wairoa and G-isborne, was at one time common also on 

 Tutira. They recognised, too, the Saddle Back (Creadion carun- 

 culatus), a species which in my time has always been exceedingly rare 



H 



Male Bell-bird feeding young. 



