406



Sydney Porter—Notes on New Zealand Birds



head, neck and upper breast shining metallic green, the back a bronzed

maroon with a greenish gloss, the wings and tail grey with greenish

reflections and the whole of the lower breast and under parts snow

white ; the bill and iris are carmine red. Before the advent of the

white man to New Zealand this Pigeon was to be found in all the

forested parts in countless thousands. The white settlers soon got to

work and in a short space of time the birds were reduced to the merest

remnant. These birds, which were absolutely tame, formed a very

easy target for everyone with a gun. The slaughter was prodigious.

Not since the wholesale massacre of the Passenger Pigeon has there been

such a killing. Old settlers have told me that 200 in a day was no

unusual bag for one person. Loads were taken in to the city refrigerators

to be used at leisure. Needless to say, the race diminished until the

Pigeon was a rara avis. Fortunately the Government stepped in only

just in time with protective legislation and prevented the total exter¬

mination of this fine bird. There was a great outcry at the time for

not only was the Pigeon the chief food for the Maori, but it was also

the bon bouche of the farmers. However, the bird was saved.


Ever since this bird was protected it has steadily increased until

it is now seen in nearly every large patch of forest reserve. My first

acquaintance with it was in the forest reserve at Lake Waikaremoana.

Here the birds, being free from all molestation, are comparatively

tame. In other places I had only heard the loud “ whoof, whoof ” of

the heavy wing beats as the bird sped away from its dreaded enemy.

Even now it is still shot in the out-of-the-way districts, and

I heard of a person when in the South Island who had shot eighty

only a few days before I arrived at a certain town in the extreme south.

Last August three Maoris were fined £15 each for killing over 300

Pigeons. Had they been white men and could have employed a good

lawyer they would doubtless have been acquitted, no doubt by pleading

as people do ali over the world when killing protected birds, that they

had mistaken them for hawks ! This shows how the Pigeon must have

increased during the years following the act which gave it full protection.

On Little Barrier Island it was a great joy to be able to study these

birds at very close quarters for they were excessively abundant and

their loud, noisy flight could be heard on every hand. Owing to freedom



