106 



Weasels, ferrets, stoats, rats, and wild cats abound in our woods. Cats are the greatest enemy 

 to the Wren family. The animals I have mentioned are making terrible devastation amongst 

 our native birds." 



The examples sent to me by the same correspondent were all captured by him by means 

 of a hand-net and, as specimens, were entirely uninjured. In one of his last letters he says : 

 " On my last visit to the mountains I found four very neatly made nests of the Bush Wren. 

 They were placed under an overhanging clay bank, but there were no eggs in any of them. I 

 found out when I was living for months in this solitude among the Wrens that if by chance you 

 wound or hurt one at this season it is sure to fly away to its nest. I observed, too, that in wet 

 or stormy weather they rest in their old abandoned nests." 



The rapid disappearance of the New Zealand avifauna receives confirmation on all hands. 

 Mr. Brough, who has collected for me for many years past, on April 22nd, 1899, wrote as 

 follows: "As I had not heard from you for a longtime I naturally thought that you had got 

 all the birds you required ; and I also thought that it was well you had done so in time — for 

 the simple reason that birds of the kinds I sent you in long-past days are seldom seen or 

 heard of now. It is only in the wildest and most remote parts of this province (Nelson) 

 that the purely native denizens of the woods are to be found ; and I am sorry to say that 

 there are very few even there, and these getting fewer and fewer every year. Their greatest 

 enemies, of course, are the introduced carnivorous animals — the ferrets, stoats, and weasels. 

 These are now to be met with roaming about far away behind the bush-blocks, and through the 

 densest and wettest parts of our woods. For the last few years I have had, in the prosecution 

 of my work, to spend three or four months at a time in the remotest parts of the province. 

 Although otherwise engaged, I have been able to devote some attention to natural history, 

 and from personal observation I can perceive what is going on from year to year in our 

 wilderness. I am aware that much of the blame in regard to the disappearance of our 

 native birds is charged to collectors. Well, there are really few natural history collectors 

 in New Zealand; and I am quite certain that a dozen weasels will cause more destruction 

 to native birds in one day than all the collectors put together. If some of the birds 

 are not collected soon they never will be. I remember, about twenty-five years ago, being 

 at the head of the Maruia Plains, where native Quail were very plentiful at that period; but 

 I took no skins, thinking at the time that they would be always fairly plentiful. But I was 

 mistaken. They disappeared, and I have never come across the real native Quail since. 

 I have about half-a-dozen very good Bush Wrens (Xenicus longipes) and about four in spirits, 

 and two or three Wood Bobins (Miro ochrotarsus) , and these are positively all I have been 

 able to get during the last two years." 



As the same mail reached me I received a letter from another valued correspondent 

 (Mr. W. W. Smith, of Ashburton), in which he says : " The Wood-hen has vanished from 

 this valley. The stoats and weasels are becoming alarmingly numerous all along the valley, 

 and have exterminated the Wekas in Peel Forest and throughout the district of the Upper 

 Gorge." 



Under the more favourable conditions of life the ferret in New Zealand is developing into 

 a formidable animal. Just before I left the Colony in 1899, Sir James Hector showed me a 

 ferret that had been killed in Mr. Core's hen-roost in the city of Wellington. It was about 

 twice the size of an ordinary ferret.* I took it for a polecat, as it was blackish on the back, but 

 Sir James assured me that it was not. This specimen was a good illustration of what favourable 



* Yellow shaded with black. Length to end of tail (from snout), 27-5 inches; maximum girth, 10-5 inches. 

 Weighed 4| lb. 



