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comprising the wall-plates, on either side, there are wooden ledges, resembling shelves, on which the 
Larks rest at night, while the Chaffinches roost upon twigs planted within the aviary, and reaching 
within a few inches of the wire netting of which the roof is composed. During moonlight nights the 
Moreporks have been seen to fly upon the roof of the aviary, and after making, as it were, a recon- 
naissance of the defences, to pounce repeatedly against the wire, causing a loud vibration, and 
startling the feathered inmates. These, in their fright, fly towards the light, dashing themselves 
against the wire netting, until the Morepork, by hopping about on the roof, succeeds in fastening 
upon one of them, and, of course, making short work of him.” 
In addition to the above evidence, sufficient of itself before any common jury to convict the 
culprit, I may mention that on one occasion in Christchurch I saw a Morepork, towards the cool of 
the evening, enter the verandah of the house in which I was staying and boldly attack a Canary whose 
cage was suspended there, vainly endeavouring to clutch it as it fluttered against the wires. 1 heard 
of another instance in which the depredator actually succeeded in tearing off a limb of the occupant 
in its efforts to pull it through the bars. 
There has, in consequence, been a crusade against the Morepork in many parts of the country. 
But whether this wholesale destruction of an indigenous species, on account of these predatory habits, 
is wise, or even prudent, may be seriously questioned. The Morepork, as we have already shown, 
not only preys on rats and mice, but is also a good insectivorous bird, with a voracious appetite. Its 
habit of feeding largely on the nocturnal lepidoptera is of itself an inestimable benefit to the agri- 
culturist, as it tends to check the spread of the caterpillar, whose ravages are becoming more severely 
felt every year. It is a dangerous thing to disturb the balance of nature by violent means ; and, in 
a new country especially, we must be careful that in removing one evil we are not opening the door 
to an immeasurable greater one. For my own part, I consider the killing of a single Owl a positive 
injury to the farming industries of the country, and scarcely compensated for by the introduction of 
a score of soft-billed insectivores in its place. 
I have sometimes found this species, at night, among the rocks along the sea-margin, from which 
it may be inferred that crabs and other small Crustacea contribute to its support. In the stomachs of 
some I have found remains of the large wood-beetle ( Prionoplus reticularis) ; and those of others I 
have found crammed with moths of all sizes, or with nocturnal coleoptera. I examined some castings 
of the Morepork in the Canterbury Museum. They are hard pellets, of an oval form, and of the 
size of a Sparrow’s egg, composed chiefly of the hard elytra and heads of various coleopterous insects, 
among which I noticed particularly the shining covering of the mata (Feronia antarctica), a handsome 
ground-beetle which is found on the Canterbury plains, but does not occur in the North Island. 
I have noticed that individual birds are very local in their disposition, often fixing on a particular 
roost or hiding-place by day, to which they will regularly resort for weeks or perhaps months together, 
the ground immediately below the perch becoming at length quite foul with their accumulated 
droppings. 
Judge Munro informs me that some years ago on opening a bird of this species he found in its 
stomach a specimen of the weta-punga, or tree-cricket ( Deinacrida heteracantha), with a body as 
large as a magnum-bonum plum ; and the stomach of another which I obtained in the Bimutaka 
Ranges, in the month of March, was filled with broken remains of the small weta (I). thoracica). 
The flight of the bird is light, rapid, and so noiseless that, I verily believe, it could surprise and 
capture a mouse at the very entrance to its burrow. On examining the feathers of the wing, it will 
be found that they are furnished with a soft or downy margin, and are specially adapted for this 
manner of flight. From an examination of the orifice of the ear we are led to infer that the power 
of hearing in this Owl is very acute. It is therefore the more surprising that, on two occasions atter 
dark, I have succeeded in seizing this species with the hand, when perched on the eaves of a verandah, 
2 c2 
