SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



355 



ENGLISH BIRDS IN TASMANIA. 



By Frank M. Littler. 



THESE notes are written for the purpose of 

 giving a short history of the efforts of several 

 residents in this colony to introduce various species 

 of English birds into our island home. Unfortu- 

 nately, in several instances their labours have 

 not been crowned with the success they deserved. 

 At the southern end of the island, where the 

 capital, Hobart, is situated, more species of birds 

 have been introduced and established than at the 

 northern end. Not that one end of the island is 

 better suited for acclimatization than the other, 

 but that some southern gentlemen who were in- 

 terested in the matter took the trouble to import 

 various species. 



The most widely distributed and the best known 

 of the imported birds is the English house sparrow. 

 It was introduced into Launceston from Adelaide 

 some thirty years ago, and it is thought they were 

 brought here by mistake for hedge-sparrows. As 

 might be expected, there was a great cry of pro- 

 testation after they had thriven and multiplied. 

 In many country districts the sparrows now do an 

 enormous amount of damage to the grain crops, 

 and are heartily detested by farmers, who do all 

 they can to thin their ranks, but without any 

 appreciable diminution in the numbers. In 

 vegetable gardens, sparrows do considerable 

 damage, as they are very fond of pulling up young 

 peas. It must be added, however, that these birds 

 .appear to eat enormous quantities of the aphis 

 blight off rose bushes, and other plants. 



The next best-known birds are the English gold- 

 finches, which have been here for some fifteen 

 years or so. They are fairly numerous in Hobart 

 .and the surrounding country. Flocks of forty 

 .and fifty have been seen at a time. In Launceston, 

 at the northern end of the island, they are not so 

 numerous as in the south, but they extend over a 

 larger area of country. In the south, goldfinches 

 :are found only for some fourteen miles round 

 Hobart ; whereas in the north they are to be seen 

 in fairly large numbers some twenty miles from 

 Launceston. At a place named Underwood, in the 

 Upper Piper Biver district, these birds have 

 recently become very numerous. There they are 

 reported to do an enormous amount of good by 

 feeding on the scale and other insect pests with 

 which the trees are infested. At Entally, about 

 eight miles from Launceston, they are also fairly 

 numerous. Sometimes young goldfinches are 

 obtained by fixing a cage over the nest when it is 

 found in a garden. Then the old birds will 

 ^continue to feed their young through the wires of 

 the cage. 



About the year 1880, Dr. E. L. Crowther, of 

 Hobart, purchased a number of starlings in New 



Zealand and brought them to Hobart, where he 

 liberated seventy-five. These birds are the common 

 English starling imported into New Zealand, and 

 from thence brought to Tasmania. They were 

 promptly protected by law, and multiplied rapidly. 

 Starlings are now plentiful in Hobart and the 

 neighbouring districts, but southward have not 

 spread below Lower Sandy Bay, about four miles 

 down the Biver Derwent. Up that river they are 

 found above Bridgwater, and inland about twenty 

 miles, extending their range beyond Brighton ; but 

 have not yet reached Campania, a distance of 

 twenty-seven miles. They have spread to Bellerive, 

 on the east bank of the Derwent, but have not 

 arrived at Sorell, fourteen miles away. The 

 starlings may be seen in flocks of a hundred or 

 more on grass paddocks hunting for grubs. These 

 birds do an enormous amount of good by destroying 

 countless numbers of these pernicious insect larvae. 

 During the fruit season, however, starlings become 

 such a nuisance by their depredations in the 

 orchards that legal protection is practically 

 abolished. Indeed, they are caught and fre- 

 quently used instead of pigeons at shooting 

 matches. For this purpose, I believe, they are 

 captured by blocking up the holes by which they 

 get under roofs and into barns or other like 

 places, where many roost, and there taking them 

 during the night. Starlings are not to be found 

 in the northern end of the island, being evidently 

 considered an undesirable importation from the 

 south. 



English skylarks are to be found in fair numbers 

 about Bisdon and Glenorchy, which places are but 

 a few miles from Hobart. About thirty or forty 

 years ago some birds of this species, imported 

 from England, were liberated near New Town, 

 but did not thrive. Within the last ten or fifteen 

 years other imported birds have been liberated, 

 which multiplied, and their descendants are now 

 fairly numerous in the paddocks about New Town, 

 Bisdon, Grlenorchy and Brown's Biver Boad, but 

 have not yet extended beyond these limits, an 

 area of abotit ten miles long by three miles wide, 

 being at present the only region occupied. In the 

 northern end of the island some imported skylarks 

 were liberated several years ago at St. Leonards, 

 about five miles from Launceston. Around Cressy, 

 twenty odd miles from Launceston, skylarks are 

 rather plentiful, more so than at St. Leonards. 

 The young birds are sometimes taken from the 

 nest and reared in captivity. Twenty years ago 

 some pheasants from England were introduced 

 and liberated at New Town, but they soon fell a 

 prey to " pot-hunters." Others were [also intro- 

 duced at Entally, where for a time they throve 



