THE INVASION FROM THE NORTH 343 



'seventies the sparrow was still an object of interest and incredulity, 

 whilst in the early 'eighties " its enormous increase was viewed with 

 considerable alarm." 



Sparrows, as stated, were first seen on Tutira in '82 ; they were 

 not again noticed for many years. Tutira must have been in those 

 days a most unattractive spot to such a species. These were the winter 

 starvation times already described, when not a fat sheep or beast was 

 to be had ; when oats and chaff, milk and butter, were unknown ; when 

 the fowls went without grain ; when, in fact, Tutira was no fit place 

 for any decent self-respecting sparrow. Not only was there no food, 

 but there was no covert, except three weeping willows, a species useless 

 for purposes of nidification ; there was not a tree about the homestead 

 able to support a nest. No wonder the sparrow scorned the naked, 

 treeless, poverty-stricken station. 



By '92 conditions had somewhat altered; the sparrow then for 

 the first time bred with us ; two nests were built that year in an 

 African box-thorn hedge which had been planted round the original 

 garden. Later again, there was a large increase in the sparrow popula- 

 tion ; pines planted in the late 'seventies by the Stuarts and Kiernan had 

 grown into trees big enough to provide ample nesting-quarters. In 

 their vicinity a considerable patch of oats had been reaped; there, 

 attracted by the cropping and by auspicious nesting-sites, forty or fifty 

 pairs established themselves, their numbers certainly larger than any 

 increase possible from the station-bred clutches of the previous season. 

 The day for continuous cropping on Tutira had, however, not yet come ; 

 it ceased, and with its cessation only two or three pairs of sparrows 

 remained at the homestead, building their nests as before in the box- 

 thorn hedge. 



Up to this date sparrows had bred within sight and hearing of man. 

 In the late 'nineties a change came about in their habits and customs. 

 They began to establish themselves in small congregations of five and 

 ten pairs, miles from the homestead, though still always within a few 

 score yards of the road. 



A further step towards a summer feral state is the selection of 

 breeding-quarters, not only away from the homestead, but another 

 stage in the emancipation of the race away even from his much-prized 

 road. The small bush reserves on the lowland portions of Tutira are 

 now, during the breeding season, overrun by multitudes of sparrows. 



