Gillies. — J^otes on some Changes in the Fauna of Otago. 317 



after these quails." Colonel Wakefield, in his official report to the directors 

 of the New Zealand Company upon this i^art of New Zealand before the 

 settlers arrived, gives special prominence to the fact that " quails are 

 plentiful over all the downs and in the plains adjoining and would be more 

 so but for the hawks and kites. Hereafter it will become the business of 

 the Scottish s^Dortsman to give rewards for their destruction." But a more 

 relentless foe than even the dogs or hawks and kites was at hand to sweep 

 away the New Zealand quail. The tremendous conflagrations, which every- 

 where overspread the country for years after the first settlers came, pretty 

 nearly annihilated the quail. There was no escape for it, for it could only 

 fly a short distance, whilst the rapidity and extent of these grand prairie 

 fires left no .chance of esca^De. This result was not noticed or j)erhaps 

 thought of at the time, but when the short herbage began to reclothe the 

 face of nature it was soon discovered that the quail had disappeared. I 

 doubt very much if it could have survived in the now bare shelterless aspect 

 of the country, and I question, too, whether such imported birds as the 

 partridge or even the pheasant will increase very much until such time as 

 more shelter is provided, and I am quite sure if the Acclimatization Society 

 wish to make their efforts a success they will have to limit in some way the 

 indiscriminate destruction of these birds which is now apparently legally 

 carried on. 



The native ducks of various sorts have not by any means suffered so 

 severely as many other forms, but even they are not at all so plentiful as 

 they were in the early days. One instance will suffice to show this : — In 

 the early days, if a person had to make the journey between the Bluff and 

 Invercargill on foot — and it was only on foot that he could make it then — 

 he would have to ford a tidal creek knoAvn as Duck Creek. If the tide was 

 in when he came to it, he would have to wade pretty well up to his chin — 

 and of course with his clothes tied in a bundle on his head. It was a com- 

 mon and notorious thing to warn travellers in such circumstances always 

 to carry a short stick with them in crossing this creek to ward off the ducks, 

 which were so numerous and so bold as to be troublesome. Of course I do 

 not vouch for the statement that they did attack peoj)le ; they certainly did 

 not attack me, and I had occasion often to cross ; but, though an exaggera- 

 tion, it certainly was current and believed in by many, and is of this much 

 value to us, that it could never have been originated unless the ducks 

 existed there in immense numbers and were peculiarly tame. I have 

 myself come across scores of nests of the grey duck [Anas superciliosa), 

 containing generally about a dozen eggs, amongst the tussock grass that 

 then waved luxuriantly over the Southland plains. It is a rare thing now 

 for anyone to find a grey duck's nest. Two years ago I found one in the 



