72



British Birds in New Zealand.



between the new fauna and the old took place. The native fauna

had “ no chance against the shrewd vulgar, hard-headed, cun¬

ning, practical, greedy, and ferocious invaders, who were inured

to hardship and had walked hand in hand with adversity through

many generations. The incident was a specially dramatic one in

respect to the avifauna. The native birds were driven com¬

pletely away—not altogether, or even chiefly, by the new comers,

but by influences that the latter had been taught by experience

to combat. Sentiment, necessity, and utility played parts in

connection with the acclimatization of birds, and it was necessity

and utility that carried most weight.”


With the disappearance of the native birds, a terrible

plague of caterpillars visited the colony some forty years ago.

Farmers suddenly discovered their crops completely eaten up by

these pests.


“ The numbers of-the insects increased with what they fed

upon, and they marched from field to field in grand procession,

leaving behind them the abomination of desolation.”


Thus we see that out of pure necessity the settlers turned

their attention to the introduction of some birds that would be

likely to destroy the insect plague, and very naturally they thought

of those they had known in the Old Country, with the result that

many of our commonest birds were introduced.


The House Sparrow comes first on the list. Five of these

birds were introduced in 1S76 and others subsequently ; they

multiplied to a prodigousextent, and the inhabited districts soon

became stocked with them. Although they are acknowledged to

destroy a certain number of insects when feeding young, the good

thus done is far more than outbalanced by the harm these birds

do in destroying the crops. “ Of the hundreds of correspondents

who have filled in the circular there are only six who raise their

voice in the Sparrow’s favour.” However, in concluding the

account of Passer domesiic7cs the author remarks “Whatever the

Sparrow may do in these times, however, there is no doubt that it

did good service to the agriculturist and horticulturist of New

Zealand in former days, when the insects were on the war-path

and when the people were liable to be eaten out of house and

home. A new generation has arisen, and only the Sparrow’s

faults are remembered.”



