Correspondence



328



If the expedition would collect this number of Masked Parrakeets, I

am sure that they would have no qualms of conscience when it came to

other rare species of parrakeets on other islands.


As to the small Lory Hypocharmosyna aureocincta which the Curator of

the American Museum says is by no means rare, I would quote the words of

such an authority as Dr. Casy Wood who has made a long study of the birds

of Fiji and who is, perhaps, the best authority on the question : he says

(Ibis, 1926, p. 120) “ The pretty little gold-collared Lorikeet, said by

Layard to be only found on Ovalau, Viti Levu and Taveuni, is still to be seen

occasionally on the two last named islands but is probably extinct on the

first. ... I am afraid that this charming little species is vanishing from

Fiji.” I have it officially from someone in Fiji who was connected with the

expedition that 47 birds were shot, and I was told that since the expedition’s

visit it had not been seen. In spite of journeys into the interior I failed to

find it.


When the expedition arrived in New Zealand their request to collect

there was refused, but on their own admission, as stated in the bulletin giving

the results of their collecting, they had previously collected on the islands in

the Hauraki Gulf, which by the way are all sanctuaries. I also saw in the

pamphlet that they had collected on the Chatham Islands before the per¬

mission had been given, as these belong to New Zealand ; and that skins of

the nearly extinct Sand Plover ( Thinornis novaeseelandiae) were taken. On

these islands exist several forms which, though very rare there, are extinct

on the mainland.


Permission was given to the expedition to visit the Antipodes Islands,

to do some restricted collection, on conditions that a responsible person from

New Zealand should accompany them. This person, a well-known naturalist,

was sent down to Half Moon Bay on Stewart Island to await their arrival,

but the ship never turned up and word was sent that they had been blown

out of their course and did not call.


I have it on very good authority that the slaughter on the islands was

awful, especially amongst the Royal Albatrosses which were nesting at the

time, in fact so many skins were taken that they were used as mats on the

cabin floors. If only five specimens of the Antipodes Island Parrakeet were

taken, it seems a strange thing that skins should have been given away to

interested parties : these I have seen. As for the Snipe ( Coenocorypha

aucklandica tristrami), a friend, a keen naturalist who visited these Islands

within recent years, stated that the Snipe was now quite extinct.


As for only two specimens of the Norfolk Island Parrakeet being taken,

I have it on very good authority from several people from the Island that

so great was the slaughter of these parrakeets that for several years after the

visit of the expedition hardly a parrakeet was seen and so scarce was it that

the authorities at once took steps to protect it, a measure which before was

not necessary, and it is only through careful protection that it is not extinct

to-day.


Why should individuals speak so indignantly of the slaughter of the

bird life on the various islands if it were not true. I personally believe it

is true though I cannot actually prove the statements, though I think if

one reads the papers issued by the Museum they will get some slight idea

of the destruction of bird life on the islands. Surely the birds are more

valuable in their own habitat than lying in dozens in the drawers of museums

whether in America or England ? What are the results of fourteen years’



