THE


Avicultural Magazine


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY

FOR THE STUDY OF

FOREIGN & BRITISH BIRDS

IN FREEDOM 8c CAPTIVITY



Third Series. —Vol. XII.—No. 6 .—All rights reserved. JUNE, 1921.



NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND BIRDS


By C. Barnby Smith


Having recently paid a few months’ visit to the North Island of New

Zealand, I am recording some notes as to the birds I saw or failed to see,

thinking such notes may be of possible interest to some bird-lovers.


New Zealand is, as regards bird-life, at once the most surprising and

disappointing country I ever visited. One has read of Kiwis, Bell birds,

Kakapos, and other weird forms of bird-life, but on landing one rubs

one’s eyes considerably and asks whether or not it is not really England.

There is the Sparrow in great abundance ; there are Thrushes, Black¬

birds, Larks, Chaffinches, Starlings, Goldfinches, and a few more

English friends, but beyond these one may search for days and see

nothing—at least, such is my experience, and (even making due

allowance for defective observation on my part) I think the fact is

beyond doubt that the New Zealand native birds are to the ordinary

individual mainly conspicuous by their absence.


New Zealanders do not appear to be much interested in birds, but

if one asks why so few of the native birds are seen, the answer is always

either that the birds are in the back blocks or were common some

twenty or thirty years ago, and are now destroyed by stoats, bush

fires, shepherd dogs, rabbit poison, or other attendant blessings of

civilization.


I recently travelled fifty miles by rail in an out-of-the-way part of

the country, and looked out of the window the whole journey, hoping

to see some interesting birds, but I only saw two birds (Finches) during



6



