io8 BIRDS 



Family Phasianid^ 

 Guinea- Fowl ; Pintado {Numida meleagris) 



The Rev. R. Taylor states that guinea-fowls were first introduced 

 by the early missionaries, who brought them to the Bay of Islands. 



The Canterbury Society received a number of these birds from 

 India in the early sixties, from Messrs Guise Brittain and Cracroft 

 Wilson. They presented six to Mr H. Redwood of Nelson in 1864. 



The Otago Society introduced 23 in 1867, and distributed them 

 to various private individuals. But they failed to reproduce them- 

 selves, and are still extremely rare in Otago, even as poultry. Ap- 

 parently the winter climate is too severe for them in most parts. 



In the North Island private individuals liberated them at several 

 points, but they do not seem to have established themselves commonly 

 as wild birds. I am informed, however, that in the Aberfeldy district, 

 about 40 miles inland from Wanganui, they are not uncommon. 



Mr Holman, curator of the Whangarei Acclimatisation Society, 

 tells me that guinea-fowls attack and drive away harrier hawks. 



Turkey {Meleagris gallipavo) 



Turkeys have apparently gone wild in various districts from time 

 to time. Mr B. C. Aston informs me that on crossing the Kaimanawa 

 Range, he came upon wild turkeys on the Erewhon Estate. There are 

 also abundance of wild turkeys on the ranges behind Kaikoura in 

 Marlborough, but they are never far from the homesteads from 

 which they have strayed. Mr T. Hallett states that they were common 

 in Hawke's Bay 30 years ago, but disappeared rapidly after that. 

 Mr Lowe considers that the disappearance of this species from districts 

 where it was formerly common in the North Island was due to the 

 same causes as that of the pheasants. The starlings and other intro- 

 duced birds ate out their food, especially the insect-life on which the 

 young were chiefly reared. The poults were lost in their efforts to 

 struggle after their parents for food. It was noticed that the young 

 broods became smaller and smaller, until at last they failed to be 

 reared. 



An interesting record is that given by Dr Cockayne concerning a 

 flock of turkeys kept by Mr Jas. O'Malley of the Glacier Hotel, 

 Bealey, 20 or 30 years ago. The birds Uved in the bed of the 

 Waimakariri River, among the tussocks which covered the land, and 

 harboured immense numbers of grasshoppers . They became absolutely 

 wild and increased to a great extent. The area over which they spread 

 was at an elevation of 2000 feet and over, and was just on the edge 

 of the wet belt, having an annual rainfall of 120 inches or over, and 



