Sydney Porter—Notes on New Zealand Birds



347



vast swamps and lakes of surpassing loveliness, and with the whole

country entirely covered with the most wonderful sub-tropical forest.

It was here that the unique bird life reigned supreme.


Alas, but little is now left to give any indication of the former

wonders of the native forest, and the bleak and barren hillsides give

no witness to their former fertility except here and there where the

blackened and half-decayed stump of some forest giant, which it was

too much trouble to root out, bears mute testimony to the glories

that have passed.


Sometimes in a deep gully or kloof in the mountains we see a slight

vision of the splendour that was once New Zealand’s—a few acres of

indigenous forest which someone has forgotten to burn but, alas,

sadly weeded out.


And still the sacrilege goes on. In the farthest corners the settlers

are penetrating, the last few giant kauries are falling to the axe and the

fires are sweeping through the luxuriant greenery of the forest. The

giant tree-ferns, the fuschias, the graceful nikau-palms are devoured

in a few minutes by the sweeping tongues of flame, and soon the country

is reduced to a state of desirable pasturage—all so that we can buy

frozen mutton a little cheaper.


And the birds—what of them ? Most of them have gone for ever.

They were massacred in their millions by the early settlers and by the

forest-felling gangs sent to various parts to open up the country.

Old settlers have told me that in the early days men would not

be content with the shooting of a few birds for the pot but would

kill hundreds at a time for the pure lust of killing. This specially

applied to the magnificent fruit pigeon, probably the finest and most

beautiful of all known pigeons. These were so tame and unsuspecting

that a man could stand under a fruit-bearing tree and shoot two hundred

in a morning. He would probably take away six or so and leave the

rest to rot. This, combined with the destruction of the forests, upon

which the birds were dependent for their food, by felling and burning

and also the introduction of carnivorous mammals, has placed the birds

of New Zealand in their present position, when it is possible for residents

in New Zealand to spend months in the country districts without

seeing a native bird of any kind except perhaps a few odd White-eyes.



