142 BIRDS 



poisoned grain scattered over a field of sprouting wheat kills more 

 larks than sparrows^." 



Wood Lark (Lullula arborea) 

 The Auckland Society introduced five in 1872. There is no record 

 as to what came of them. 



Family Turdid^ 

 *Song Thrush (Turdus musicus) 



Somewhere about 1872, the Nelson Society introduced five of 

 these birds. They disappeared for many years, and then reappeared 

 later. The probability is that the earlier lot failed to establish them- 

 selves, and that later the district became stocked by an immigration 

 from some other part. 



The Otago Society introduced two in 1865, four in 1867, 49 in 

 1868, 48 in 1869, and 42 in 1871. There was no mistake as to the 

 determination of the Otago settlers to have their favourite song- 

 bird — the "Mavis" — established in New Zealand. It shows, too, the 

 hardiness of this bird in confinement, that Mr J. A. Ewen shipped 

 the above 48 in London, in 1869, in charge of Mr R. Bills, and 



* The skylark is a resident in the temperate regions, but the Arctic birds migrate 

 in autumn to South Europe, North Africa, North-west India, and North China. 

 Seebohm (Siberia in Europe, p . 257) gives a most interesting account of this migration, 

 as observed by him in Heligoland : " In the afternoon it was a calm, with a rising 

 barometer; in the evening a breeze was already springing up from the south-east. 

 I called upon Gatke, who advised me to go to bed, and be up before sunrise in 

 the morning, as in all probability I should find the island swarming with birds. 

 Accordingly I turned in soon after ten. At half-past twelve I was awoke with the 

 news that the migration had already begun. Hastily dressing myself, I at once 

 made for the lighthouse. The night was almost pitch dark, but the town was all 

 astir. In every street men with large lanterns and a sort of angler's landing-net 

 were making for the lighthouse. As I crossed the potato-fields birds were continually 

 getting, up at my feet. Arrived at the lighthouse, an intensely interesting sight 

 presented itself. The whole of the zone of light within range of the mirrors was 

 alive with birds coming and going. Nothing else was visible in the darkness of 

 the night but the lantern of the lighthouse vignetted in a drifting sea of birds. 

 From the darkness in the east, clouds of birds were continually emerging in an 

 uninterrupted stream; a few swerved from their course, fluttered for a moment 

 as if dazzled by the light, and then gradually vanished with the rest in the western 

 gloom. Occasionally a bird wheeled round the lighthouse and then passed on, and 

 occasionally one fluttered against the glass like a moth against a lamp, tried to perch 

 on the wire netting and was caught by the lighthouse men. I should be afraid to 

 hazard a guess as to the hundreds of thousands that must have passed in a couple 

 of hours; but the stray birds which the lighthouse men succeeded in securing 

 amounted to nearly three hundred. The scene from the balcony of the Ughthouse 

 was equally interesting; in every direction birds were flying like a swarm of bees, 

 and every few seconds one flew against the glass. All the birds seemed to be flying 

 up wind, and it was only on the lee side of the light that any were caught. They 

 were nearly all skylarks. About three o'clock a.m. the migration came to an end 

 or continued above the range of our vision." The date was the 12th of October. I 

 am not aware of any migratory tendency in the skylarks which are now naturalised 

 in New Zealand. 



