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CHAPTER XXII. 



THE FUTURE OF NATIVE AVIFAUNA. 



PERUSING this chapter, instances of British species which have struggled 

 in vain, or are struggling against untoward environment, will doubtless 

 suggest themselves to the reader. As in ancient England, so in New 

 Zealand, so on Tutira, the axe, the fire-stick, the spade, the inroads of 

 domesticated stock, have each of them played a part in the grand trans- 

 formation scene. What has happened, or is about to happen, to the 

 wild creatures of New Zealand, is in fact but a re-enactment of what 

 has occurred to the fauna and avifauna of civilised Britain. The bear, 

 the wolf, the beaver have disappeared ; the places of the great auk and 

 the bustard know them no more. The substitution of the olive and 

 fig for the thorn and thistle has left no room in either country 

 for animals regarded as undesirable, or breeds unable to fend for 

 themselves. 



Were Tutira an ordinary run, which like large tracts of southern 

 Hawke's Bay could be flattened into a mere roll of turf, a mere carpet 

 of grass, half a dozen, perhaps, of its bird species might survive. It is 

 not ; on its surface will probably continue to exist a greater number of 

 species than on any other run in New Zealand. Although this, however, 

 may be so, it is beyond all question that the numbers of each of these 

 breeds will be lessened in the immediate future. It is impossible for 

 those unacquainted with the past to realise the exuberance of bird life 

 in the woodlands of the 'eighties. Bush-falling had barely been started 

 in any part of the province, the North Island had been too much 

 disturbed by war for anything approaching close settlement. Forest, 

 wood, and water birds still existed in undiminished multitudes. It was 

 then possible for Maoris to shoot on Tutira half a hundred brace of 

 pigeon in a few hours. I have heard an observer describe how, as a boy 



