338 TUTIRA 



insufficient ; for the same reason, indeed, as homo sapiens failed at first 

 on Tutira, from want of experience of novel conditions. 



That was the main cause ; there was another in the contraction of 

 feeding - grounds, already fully explained, which took place on every 

 half-developed sheep station. Eabbits, like sheep, were forced on to 

 the tops, and thus in the open exposed to the hawks. 



The earliest specimen killed on Tutira was secured by the late Sir 

 Norman Campbell, Bart., 1 then rabbiter for the Mohaka district. It was 

 taken near the centre of the run, within a few yards of the road. Signs 

 also were noticeable in different parts of the run, but it was a couple of 

 years still before other rabbits were actually taken. 2 



Not, in fact, until the beginning of the new century did the long- 

 threatened invasion begin. Then in a few weeks rabbits were found to 

 have established themselves on many parts of the run. A percentage of 

 these colonies and congregations were alongside the main road, but the 

 chief gate of entrance was by way of the " Wild Horse " country. There, 

 where the red-deer had struck Tutira in the late 'sixties, the rabbit 

 vanguard was thickest ; it had, I believe, followed approximately the 

 route selected years earlier by the wandering stag. 



Rooks (Corvus frugilegeus), which were imported by the Auckland 

 Acclimatisation Society, did not, according to the minutes of the Society, 

 immediately prosper ; it was thought that the young birds were languid 

 and weak, owing to the heat of their new surroundings. Be that as 

 it may, the species seems soon to have shaken off this early malady ; 

 in Hawke's Bay, at any rate, the few pair liberated near Hastings have 

 after many years increased to a considerable rookery. 



In 1907 the financial barometer of Tutira had dropped to " stormy," 

 wool had fallen to something under fivepence, the station had, owing to 

 wet seasons, become overgrown with scrub, half of the run was held 

 only by annual agreement with the native owners, the new lease was 



1 Although they have never actually bred on the station, there have been three instances 

 of baronets remaining on Tutira for considerable periods. They have reached the run moving 

 northwards indeed, as in the case of the Paradise duck (Casarca variegata), Tutira seems to 

 be about the northern limit of their range. They have never thrived, appearing unable to 

 accommodate themselves to light soils. As ryegrass has done, after a few seasons they have 

 disappeared. 



2 In those dark days when one squatter drew aside another for private talk, it was easy to 

 guess the subject of conversation. It seemed too as if the old habit of snuffing was about to be 

 revived. There wasn't a sheep-farmer in the province who could not produce rabbit-droppings 

 from his waistcoat pocket, who would not tremblingly request his friends to smell 'em and 

 affirm they were hares' or lambs' or sheep anything, in fact, but what they were. 



