74 MAMMALIA 



Mr Richard Norman, Albertown, writes in the Otago Witness of 

 2nd October, 1890: 



I think that Mr E. H. Wilmot's experience in the Hollyford Valley, as 

 recorded in the Witness a year or two ago, conclusively proves that the 

 imported vermin kill the native wingless birds. He encountered there a 

 ferret warren, and the weka, kiwi, and kakapo were almost exterminated. 

 In the Makarora Valley these used to be plentiful, but since the advent 

 of the stoats and weasels they are very rare, and rabbiting tallies have not 

 depreciated. 



Mr Geo. Mueller, Chief Surveyor of Westland, in his report on 

 the "Reconnaissance Survey of the Head- waters of the Okuru, Actor 

 and Burke Rivers" {Rept. N.Z. Survey Dept., for 1889-90, p. 50), 

 says: 



Several weasels and ferrets were caught and killed at the Okuru and 

 Waiatoto settlements, within about a mile from the sea-coast. . . . No rabbits 

 weire met with until near the Actor, 19 miles from the coast; and they were 

 only seen in numbers at the very head- waters of the Okuru .... Meanwhile 

 the Kakapos,Kiwis, and Blue Ducks have nearly disappeared from the district. 



Mr Richard Henry, writing from Lake Te Anau in September, 

 1890, says: 



I have known the ferrets to take seven young paradise ducks out of a 

 clutch of ten in 1888, and last year the same pair of ducks only reared two 

 young ones, but away from the lake I have seen larger families. I found 

 two black teal ducks killed by a ferret, though it is seldom any of their 

 work is seen, for they always drag their prey under cover. The black teal 

 are getting scarce. 



Mr Henry adds : 



I think very few ferrets at liberty survive the winter for want of food. 



Sir Thos. Mackenzie has recorded a case in which a weasel 

 killed a black swan; and another which he saw in the Catlins district 

 where a weasel brought down two tuis {Prosthemadera) from a tree. 



The reverse of this tale is interesting. Mr H. Drummond has 

 accumulated some evidence as to the killing of weasels by wekas 

 (Ocydrotnus sp.). In 1909 Mr Murrell, junr., and Mr Harry Birley 

 described how the wekas had been seen attacking and killing weasels. 

 Mr Murrell vsdtnessed a most interesting fight between them on a 

 path. The weka circled round the weasel, watching a chance to spring 

 in and strike it, which it did, always on the head, finally stretching 

 its opponent out. They both note that native birds were beginning 

 to increase again. In 1916 Mr A. T. G. Symons of Christchurch 

 recorded the fact that wekas were kilUng weasels. 



In regard to the occurrence and distribution of these species at 

 the present time in New Zealand, I have no record of the introduction 

 of the true polecat {Putorius foetidus) into the country; but some eight 



