2 34 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



on the main island, lie thought that the steps he had suggested would 

 be the most effectual for their preservation. 



Mr. Eichardson remarked, with regard to the disappearance of the 

 weka from the forest between Jacob's river and the Waiau, that there 

 were no rabbits there, b\it the ferrets bad evidently gone there in 

 advance of them. 



Mr. G. M. Thomson stated that in 1882 he had crossed the Waiau 

 at Clifton and walked to Lake Hauroto, on the shores of which he 

 camped. He skirted all round the lake, and there were rabbits in 

 abundance within 20 miles of the head of Preservation Inlet. He 

 worked into the Princess Mountains, 12 miles from the head of 

 Preservation, and at that time there were numerous birds to be seen. 

 The tent was surrounded by kiwis and kakapos, and in the bush there 

 were any number of crows ; but these had now disappeared. In 

 January last, at the meeting of the Australasian Association at Christ- 

 church, the biological section passed a resolution asking that Resolution 

 Island should be declared a reserve for Native birds. A great deal of 

 blame had been thrown upon the Acclimatisation Societies for their 

 indiscriminate and, he might say, ignorant work in introducing animals, 

 and plants also ; but, so far as the Otago Acclimatisation Society was 

 concerned, he wished to say that from the very first it had every year 

 passed a resolution protesting against the introduction of any animal of 

 the weasel tribe, but there were men of sufficient interest with the 

 Government to get them to introduce these animals in spite of the 

 protest. One natural enemy of the rabbit was the weka, and the 

 wekas had increased very much ; but one effect of the introduction of 

 the ferret was that for the last few years one could hardly come across a 

 weka. He was sure that the rabbits had not been put down one bit by 

 the ferrets, and a few months ago he was on the hills to the seaward of 

 the Taieri plain when he saw rabbits playing about in numbers, while 

 he knew that ferrets were also in abundance. He was afraid that the 

 matter of the preservation of native birds had got beyond bounds on 

 the mainland of New Zealand. 



Mr. Eichardson understood that during the Union Steam Ship 

 Company's annual excursions to Milford Sound shooting was considered 

 to be part of the entertainment, and he was told that last year one 

 man, a moneyed tourist from Home, shot 160 ducks in one day during 

 the breeding season. He thought that was a thing which should be 

 distinctly put a stop to. A party of High School boys also had during 

 the summer time at Manapouri left absolutely nothing till their supply 

 of cartridges gave out, 



Mr. E. Melland remarked that any islands which were set apart 

 for preserving birds would have to be a good distance from the shore, 

 for ferrets smelt a long way off, and also swam very well. He would 

 suggest the Kermadecs as a place where kiwis might do very well. 

 The rapidity with which the ferrets cleared away the wekas he regarded 

 as remarkable. Years ago the wekas on a run at Lake Te Anau were 

 sufficient to keep down the rabbits, which they killed apparently for 

 sport ; but two years after the ferrets had been turned out the wekas 

 had completely disappeared from the run he spoke of, and since then 

 rabbiting had to be resorted to every year. Speaking from experience, 



