380 TUTIRA 



or morepork at first prevented their multiplication. Search must be 

 made for the lack of some formerly helpful factor ; that factor was the 

 absence of alien insect-eating birds. The decline of the pheasant syn- 

 chronised with that advent of small birds whose rapid increase in the 

 'seventies " had been viewed with considerable alarm " by the Hawke's 

 Bay Acclimatisation Society. The fact is, that owing to climatic con- 

 ditions any great success with the pheasant was from the first fore- 

 doomed. It was only because of an unlimited supply of the most 

 suitable and nutritive chick -food that the breed had been able to 

 multiply even temporarily. Although Hawke's Bay "busters" must 

 have always been detrimental, yet owing to the enormous supply of 

 insect-food this disability had been more than counterbalanced for the 

 time. It must be recollected, too, that about the date of introduction 

 of the pheasant, the development of Hawke's Bay was proceeding apace. 

 Each year on each sheep-farm large areas were being grassed ; swamps 

 were being drained ; even a certain amount of ploughing done. Insect 

 life during that period was increasing out of all proportion to natural 

 checks. 



Grasshoppers and caterpillars, native and alien, had multiplied on 

 the succulent foreign grasses and fodder-plants by hundreds of millions. 

 According to old residenters, they were plagues in the land. The 

 pheasant had lived without competitors in the struggle of life ; under 

 more strenuous conditions the bird failed to hold its own. The breed 

 is one hailing from a dry country ; the chicks are peculiarly susceptible 

 to cold and wet. With the deprivation of unlimited insect-food, for 

 which formerly the hen had hardly to seek, the danger period to the 

 chicks was extended. The brood was trailed over greater areas; the 

 youngsters were not so fully fed ; the number of eggs laid was less ; in 

 case of accident, perhaps, a second nest was not attempted. When 

 account is taken of the care devoted by keepers at home to pheasant 

 chicks, the special foods supplied to them, the short grass in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the coops, and lastly, the absence of torrential rains, instead 

 of wonder at the pheasant's decrease there should be marvel at the 

 continuance of the breed at all in Hawke's Bay. 



In this and previous chapters I have collected such evidence in 

 regard to migratory movements as I have been able to gather from 

 species that have crossed Tutira. The gist of it may be compressed 

 into a few sentences. My beliefs are that where imported species, 



