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An Early New Zealand Settler Talks about Birds



AN EARLY NEW ZEALAND SETTLER TALKS

ABOUT BIRDS


[The following article is reproduced, by permission , from the Fifth

Annual Report of the Avicultural Society of New Zealand, from which we

shall hope to publish further extracts at a later date. The Editorial notes

are by the Editor of that Report .]


Being a lover of New Zealand native birds, I have studied them

in their natural state in the heavy forests of the North Island ever

since I can remember, which takes me back fifty years.


When only a small boy 6 years old (I had only just arrived with

my parents from England) we settled in a small township called

Ashhurst, at the mouth of the Manawatu Gorge. On the one side of us

was the Ruahine Range, untouched by man, and the home of the

famous Huia, and on the other side for hundreds of miles dense bush

with small townships here and there ; so I was in a position to see and

study most of the birds in that area. The forest at that time was

teeming with bird life, and a more joyous and happy family (to judge

by the beautiful singing and the fluttering of countless wings) could

not be found. It was an experience one could never forget. These

joyous sounds were more in evidence early in the morning of a bright

sunny day, and yet often after a spell of wet weather, when the birds

seemed to try and make up for lost time and outdo each other in

song, I always gave the honour in this direction to the Tui,

whose beautiful notes I have often listened to on a bright moonlight

summer night when the bush was still. He sings at intervals right

through the night and his notes then are the more golden with no other

sounds to spoil the effect. You also get the full benefit of the bell-like

notes.


At that time our native birds had very few natural enemies besides

man, and the forests supplied an abundance of food for every kind of

bird in the way of honey flowers, berries, insects, etc., so it is no

wonder bird life was so happy and free. The predominating species

at that time were the Pigeon, Tui, and Kaka. They were in their

countless thousands.


A sight I never shall forget was when a very large flock of Pigeons



