i6o BIRDS 



they disappeared. As they were very tame, they were shot down by boys 

 in large numbers, and may have been exterminated in this way. 



The Wellington Society introduced 30 birds in 1875; and 40 

 in 1876; they are not now common about Wellington, but are to 

 be found up the coast to Wanganui and throughout Taranaki, where 

 they are fairly common; also at Wairarapa. In and about Napier 

 they are in thousands. Mr W. W. Smith says (1916): "though now 

 common in Taranaki, it is said to be less numerous than it was 

 twenty years ago." The Agricultural Inspector for New Plymouth 

 in 1903 blamed this species as the chief cause of the spread of the 

 blackberry. This is a manifest error, for not only is the bird mainly 

 insectivorous, and not to any great extent a fruit-eater, but it is also 

 almost confined to towns, and builds mostly on houses. On the other 

 hand Mr Drummond (May, 1910) says "they are very destructive 

 to apricots, apples, pears, strawberries and gooseberries." 



Mr Mahoney of Tuparoa (May, 1912) says they are quite common 

 in the neighbourhood of buildings, and are very destructive to fruit 

 and to grass-seed, quite as much so as yellow-hammers and sparrows. 

 In April they attacked and cleared off most of the late peaches. He 

 also describes how starlings dispossessed a pair of minahs from the 

 ventilator of the school, where they had built their nest for many 

 years. The minahs took themselves off to a willow-tree. Mr F. P. 

 Corkill of New Plymouth also reports how starlings have displaced 

 minahs in the town. Mr H. J. Fowler of Marton states (June, 1912) 

 that minahs follow the plough, as many as a dozen or more together, 

 all day unweariedly, and pick up abundance of grubs. 



Australian Minah {Myzantha garrula) 



In Hutton's Catalogue of the Birds of New Zealand, published in 

 1 87 1, it is stated that this species was introduced into Canterbury 

 and Nelson from Victoria. The earjy records of the Canterbury 

 Society do not mention them, and those of Nelson are lost. This is 

 the Australian bird known as the noisy minah or miner. 



The Otago Society liberated 80 in the neighbourhood of 

 Palmerston in 1880, and they were occasionally seen for two years, 

 and then disappeared. The late Mr Deans, curator of the Society, 

 said these birds were quite different from Acridotheres tristis, the 

 Indian minah. 



Mr Huddlestone states that Australian minahs were introduced 

 into Nelson in the seventies, that they flourished for a time, but 

 have now (19 16) disappeared. I think he is referring to the same 

 species as Mr F. G. Gibbs describes as plentiful in Nelson, and that 

 they were Indian minahs obtained from Australia, in many parts of 



