Gillies. — Notes on some Changes in the Fauna of Otago. 315 



bird everywhere. Early settlers whose cultivations were in the bush (and 

 almost all cultivation in the early days was confined to bush clearing) had 

 always the greatest difficulty in savmg their croi^s of wheat. For this lively 

 roguish little bird defied all scarecrows, and even shooting them was found 

 to be an endless and expensive job, for, though a few might be killed at a 

 shot, the flock just rose and settled down again immediately a few yards 

 off. I have known patches of wheat rendered utterly valueless by this now 

 harmless bird; so rare and scarce have they become that I notice that 

 country settlers near bush now have quite a warm side to the little green 

 parrakeet and often make household pets of them. 



The kaka (Nestor meridionalis ) , too, is a parrot that has almost passed 

 away. In the early days they were always abundant everywhere, and were 

 constantly shot for the pot by the settlers. At certain seasons they lived 

 on the black pine-berries, and their presence on any tree could always be 

 detected by the cracking of the stones of the berries overhead and the falling 

 of the broken shells, even though the usually noisy screeching kaka was 

 sitting close and still. In such a case it was almost always possible to 

 secure as many as you wanted, even though there was only one on the tree 

 or in sight, for all you had to do was so to fire as only to wound the first 

 one, when he would set up such a screeching and cawing as would soon 

 assemble all the kakas for miles round, when you could knock over as many 

 as you wanted. Though always obtainable, the kaka was more plentiful at 

 certain times than others, but whether he migrated or not, or where he 

 migrated to, I know not. It was a general belief amongst early settlers 

 that the kaka did migrate — it was thought to the woods on the west 

 coast — but no authentic information was ever obtained that I have heard 

 of. Some years they appeared in the settled parts of the province in 

 flocks positively of hundreds. One year especiaUy I remember (I think 

 it must have been 1855 or 1856), they came in such numbers as to 

 amount almost to a plague. Nor did they confine themselves to the 

 bush, but everywhere, in open or in bush alike, on stacks, on fences, or 

 on the ridges of houses, you would see them perched in rows as close as 

 they could sit. I have seen them sitting on a post-and-rad fence in 

 the Tokomairk'o Plain so close together, that new arrivals had to fight 

 for perching-room, and by shooting along the line of a fence you could 

 knock over half-a-dozen at a shot. The destruction which they caused that 

 year to stacks and to thatched houses, tearing them oxDen with their power- 

 ful bills, was something enormous. I remember settlers used to discuss 

 how they were to protect their property against this serious pest, which it 

 was believed would increase every year as the area of grain culture 

 extended. But curiously enough, the following year to that there were 



