ii6 BIRDS 



birds, thrushes, starlings, goldfinches, green-linnets and Californian 

 quail are now common. 



I have given the facts regarding the introduction, spread and 

 subsequent disappearance of the pheasants at very considerable length, 

 because they show what a complex problem the naturalisation of a 

 species in a new country may be. In spite of all the efforts which have 

 been put forth during the last half-century, pheasants are not very 

 common anywhere in the North Island, and are extremely rare in 

 the South. Poisoned grain, ferrets, stoats, weasels, wild cats, hawks, 

 wekas and poachers have all been blamed for this failure, and no 

 doubt all have borne a share in bringing about the present position. 

 But I think Mr Cheeseman's explanation is probably the correct one, 

 namely that the diminution of their food supplies caused by the vast 

 increase of all kinds of small birds has been the chief agent. "These," 

 he says, "have literally starved out the pheasants, which scarcely 

 manage to keep themselves alive during the winter months, and, when 

 the breeding season arrives, they are not in a fit state to reproduce 

 their species." Mr Bell, of Hawera, who strongly endorses this theory, 

 states also that " young pheasants cannot travel far for food, and that 

 they are attacked and destroyed by Californian Quails." Mr J. Grant 

 of Wanganui informs me (191 8) that Australian magpies have been 

 seen to attack and kill a hen-pheasant. 



What is true about pheasants is also true for all the larger game 

 birds. It is not so much the hawks, ferrets, wekas and owls, as the 

 smaller birds which are the real cause of the diminution and dis- 

 appearance of the larger species. It is the eating out of the food 

 supply, and chiefly of the insect life which is the main food supply 

 of the young birds. 



Pheasants do much damage to crops; they destroy young grass; 

 pull up sprouting maize, attack potatoes, carrots, beans, peas, barley, 

 wheat, and many kinds of fruit. 



On the other hand they eat great quantities of insects, as many 

 as 150 crickets having been taken from the crop of one bird. In the 

 Auckland district, when the berries of the ink-weed {Phytolacca) are 

 ripe, the pheasants feed largely on them, and their flesh becomes very 

 dark-coloured at that season of the year^. 



^ The way in which incorrect statements get abroad and are quoted later as 

 facts is illustrated by some remarks in Animals of To-day; their Life and Conservation, 

 by C. J. Cornish. This author says : " In Australia, and still more noticeably in 

 New Zealand, the new comers, the most vigorous representatives of the later types 

 of animal, had a clear advantage over the ancient marsupial forms and the wingless 

 birds. The pheasant, which can both run and fly, displaces the New Zealand 

 Apteryx, and the rabbit gets the better of the wallaby and smaller kangaroos." The 

 statement about the pheasants is absolutely wrong. 



