XXXIV 



INTBODUCTION. 



There is just the chance that, in the course of time, some of these vanishing species may 

 learn to adapt themselves to the new condition of things, and take a fresh lease of life. I 

 will give an illustration of my meaning. The Tooth-billed Pigeon (Diduncidus strigirostris), a 

 native of the Samoan or Navigator Islands, was supposed to be rapidly becoming extinct, as its 

 terrestrial habits rendered it an easy prey to predatory animals, such as cats and rats, introduced 

 into the islands from European vessels ; but late accounts show that it has changed its habits, 

 feeding or resting exclusively on large trees, and that it is now increasing in numbers. Com- 

 menting on this, a leading scientist says: "It is in this way, through the struggle for existence, 

 that habits which have been transmitted from parent to offspring through unknown generations 

 are suddenly abandoned, and entirely opposite ones adopted that give the needed protection to 

 life and continued prosperity, which the inherited methods no longer are able to secure." Now, 

 singularly enough, one of the three species mentioned above, the Whitehead (Glitonyx albi- 

 cwpilla) was forty-five or fifty years ago the commonest bird in the . North Island, and at that 

 time a strict inhabitant of low scrubby vegetation, where its habits were gregarious. For many 

 years it seemed to have become extinct, Mr. Eeischek, during several years' hunting in the 

 woods of the Auckland district, never having met with a single example. During late years it has 

 reappeared, but in an entirely new character, as the frequenter of the highest tree-tops, and it 

 appears to be sensibly increasing. On the Little Barrier, however, where it has never been much 

 disturbed, it still continues to frequent the low vegetation. 



Among recently vanished forms of very high interest I ought to refer to an aberrant form of 

 Ground- wren, constituting a genus by itself {T raver da), discovered only a few years ago on Stephen's 

 Island, and now unhappily — through the greed of natural history collectors — absolutely extinct. 



Other expiring forms might be indicated ; but I think I have said enough to show that in 

 New Zealand we possess an endemic fauna of great scientific interest, and that, for the credit of 

 our race, it behoves us to do all in our power to preserve what we can of these interesting forms 

 of life. 



THE PASSING OF OUB FOBESTS. 



Budyard Kipling, who is as' well travelled as most men, declares that New Zealand is the 

 most lovely country on the face of the earth. If this be true (and personally I agree with him) 

 there can be no doubt that no small share of that loveliness is due to the evergreen vegetation 



the Labourer of Man ' (< Trans. N. Z. Inst.,' vol. xxxv., p. 1), which consisted chiefly of a vindication of the Sparrow 

 and a protest against " the mistaken crusade against small birds " ; and he then said that his contention had received 

 the amplest confirmation in the late bountiful harvest in the South Island. Never had the birds been more numerous, 

 or the complaints of the " pests " more bitter, yet the yield of grain was absolutely without precedent, and to the birds 

 who had destroyed the natural enemies of the corn the credit was due. But the agriculturists had again justified 

 Virgil's old complaint of the " greedy husbandman " who grudged his best friends the well-earned toll they exacted for 

 their services. 



This self-assertive little bird, in spite of much persecution, holds his own in most countries ; and in England, since 

 the abolition of Sparrow Clubs, he has had, on the whole, a very good time of it. I remember, some years ago, being 

 very much interested in seeing some hundreds of Sparrows repair at noon to the Gardens of the Tuileries, in Paris, to 

 be fed by an eccentric visitor who had made it his chief pastime for years, the birds perching on his head and shoulders, 

 and crowding round him in perfect confidence. The Sparrow's triumphant victory in Hungary, where, years after his 

 banishment, he had to be re-introduced at the cost of the State, to contend against the insect pests in that country, is a 

 matter of history. In generous England he has lived down the old prejudice and has even achieved Koyal con- 

 sideration ! The writer of an article in the Cornhill Magazine, dealing with our common birds, says : " Are we not all' 

 one at heart with that owner of a palace who for a whole season admitted his guests by a side entrance, a Wren having 

 built her nest in the hinges of the great gate during its temporary disuse ? Was not even a Sparrow's untidy nest 

 left untouched this year because it had built in the crown upon His Majesty's gate at Sandringham ? " 



