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Sydney Porter—Notes on New Zealand Birds



a longer tail, light slate-grey in colour, with a very thick, short beak,

and on each side of the lower mandible a round wattle, about the size

of a sixpence, of bright sky blue.


In the old days before the advent of the colonist this bird was

fairly numerous in the deep recesses of the forest. Like most of the

New Zealand birds it was remarkably tame and would come up to

inspect a stranger. It lived mainly in the undergrowth, never taking

long or sustained flights. It was chiefly famed for its remarkable

notes which are said to have resembled distant bells. In fact it

is mainly known to the old settlers as the “ Bellbird ” owing to its

musical powers.


With the burning of the bush it has disappeared from nearly all

parts of the North Island, being found only in one or two localities

such as the forest on Mount Egmont and the Urewera country.


I was told by an old naturalist that fifty or sixty years ago it was

plentiful in many wooded gullies, and he and several others made

representation to the Government asking to be allowed to catch several

pairs for release on the islands. But owing to the usual Government

apathy nothing came of it.


There is just a chance that this bird may hold its own and survive

in remote parts, but it is just as likely that the next few years will

see its extermination for at the present moment its fate is certainly

in the balance. It would be a matter of the greatest regret if this

unique species should pass away, for it is certainly one of the strangest

of New Zealand’s very distinct avifauna.


One of my chief reasons for going to Stewart Island was to see the

southern representative of the Blue-wattled Crow, a bird exactly

similar except that the wattle is bright orange, at least three-quarters

of it, the base being blue. Owing to violent gales we could not land

at that part of the island where the bird is still found, so that I had to

come away disappointed. Even in Stewart Island, its last refuge, the

bird is rare. An old resident, who lives in the remote part where it is

still found, told me that he had only seen it two or three times in the

last seven years. Rats and the wild cats are its greatest enemy and

in time will no doubt lead to its ultimate extinction. In most parts

of the South Island it seems to have quite disappeared.



