l56 Roval Australasian Ornithologists' Union. [ist^'Dec. 



tect birds ? (2) Do they need protection ? (3) If so, is it 

 possible to give it ? Personally, he would be inclined to give an 

 emphatic affirmation to the first, but on the third he would feel 

 rather doubtful. In his youth he had affectionate remembrance 

 of the (\ickoo. No bird had given him more pleasure, and from 

 that time he had begun to take an interest in birds, which he had 

 retaine 1 all his life. He regarded birds as the most beautiful of 

 all animals. He was not sure that they were not the most useful, 

 and he doubted if any animals were more intelligent. For ten 

 years in New Guinea he had had the opportunity of studying 

 the lovely species of all the rare Birds-of-Paradise. which he 

 found, on arrival, were rapidly being exterminated. He passed 

 laws for their protection, but, remarkable to relate, one of the 

 first effects on the Red Birds-of-Paradise was almost fatal. In 

 his absence a visitor asked permission of Sir Francis Winter to 

 obtain one or two for scientific purposes, and straightway com- 

 menced to shoot them out. On his return he was furious, and on 

 visiting Ferguson Island he found not a fully- plumed bird left. 

 Thus, it was very difficult to really protect birds. Emus, for 

 instance, were protected in Australia, yet more than 1,000 skins 

 had been sold in London last year, and, although laws had been 

 passed prohibiting the export of skins and feathers other than 

 Ostrich, Customs officers in London recently opened a case labelled 

 " horse-hair," and found therein 5,000 Parrakeet skins, while 

 20,000 Humming-Birds had also been sold in London. As proving 

 the remarkable intellect of birds, there was the rapidity with which 

 they found out when they were protected. He had stopped 

 shooting on the island of Darnley, and almost immediately the 

 birds began to come and feed right under his house. Then he 

 allowed no shooting at the Waterfall, and the birds there became 

 quite tame. Unfortunately, on the arrival of a Dutch ship a 

 party went ashore, and, without leave, asked or given, began a 

 regular battue, from which the birds did not recover for a very 

 long while. Immediately he heard of it he sent word to the 

 commander that unless he instantly stopped his men he would 

 arrest him with his native police. It had been his fortune to be 

 in two places where two very rare birds had already become 

 extinct— the Dodo in Mauritius and the Great Auk on the Shetlands. 

 The latter bird had once been so numerous that ships' crews used 

 to go ashore, and, driving herds of the Auk into yards, they would 

 fill up their ships with them for food. Now, the whole island had 

 so frequently been dug over for remains that he did not belie^'e 

 that a single particle could be obtained. Then there was Trinidad, 

 where there had originally been 18 rare birds peculiar to the 

 island, and where now there were but five. Nearer home again, 

 they, of course, thought of the Moa, which must at one time have 

 provided the Maoris with the main portion of their food. In 1903 

 an egg was discovered, which was now in the Museum at Dunedin, 

 and was by far the most valuable egg in the world. Its value 

 -reminded him of many other wonderfully valuable birds — one 



