4138 The Zoologist — September, 1874. 



without serious difficulty, we might obtain water-fowl of the choicest 

 kinds, which would ultimately jivove of great value. The success 

 which has everywhere attended our introduction of the pheasant 

 and quail encourages the belief that further valuable acquisitions 

 to the fauna might be obtained from the great food-supplying 

 families Phasianidae and Tetraonidae, and much of the food of 

 these birds would be drawn from sources which would not be 

 otherwise economised. 



After this brief review of changes in our fauna now taking place 

 from the introduction of foreign birds, the effects of colonisation 

 on the habits of those species which we know as indigenous should 

 likewise be carefully considered. The wide-spread cultivation of 

 the soil, the introduction of many foreign fruits and plants, the 

 reproduction of domestic animals, by the European colonist, have 

 each in turn influenced the habits of certain of our birds. 



Our falcons have been persecuted so persistently that their race 

 has been greatly weakened in numbers. Unfortunately for them, 

 their extraordinary courage has not yet been tempered with dis- 

 cretion ; a bold dash is now and then made amongst poultry and 

 pigeons ; but these predatory attacks, intermittent and uncertain, 

 have not influenced their food-acquiring habits in any marked 

 degree. To the "more wary harrier, with its greater indifference as 

 to the quality of its food, its grosser appetite, colonisation has added 

 much to its means of living ; from swamps and lagoons frequented 

 by ducks and rails, it has been tempted to visit sheep-farms in great 

 numbers : it feeds greedily on carcases or offal ; it may be observed 

 also lightly soaring over rabbit-warrens, and an examination of its 

 castings discloses the help it lends in checking the too rapid in- 

 crease of a most prolific rodent. Owls should be cherished as 

 amongst the number of our best friends: we have found many 

 specimens of their pellets wholly composed of the fur and bones of 

 mice. The cry of the "more-pork" at the barn and rick-yard 

 should be hailed by the farmer as the greeting of a welcome guest: 

 the wanton destruction of an owl is a public robbery, which should 

 be punished with as much severity as sheep-stealing. 



Halcyons have sensibly increased in numbers as cultivation has 

 spread ; they are true allies of the gardener and farmer, and clear 

 off hosts of insects that infest or devour the produce of agricultural 

 labour. These birds follow closely in the wake of the settler, and 

 may be termed common where they were a few years since 



I 



