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Sydney Porter—Notes on New Zealand Birds



beautiful golden feathers were used to manufacture the famous

Maori cloaks.


Soon after the coming of the white man to the shores of New

Zealand, this extraordinary bird practically ceased to exist. The

cause of its rapid disappearance will ever remain a mystery. The only

conjecture that appeals to reason is that the European birds, which

were liberated soon after the country was first settled, brought over

germs to which the Stitch-bird and many others were highly

susceptible, just as in the same way Europeans brought diseases to

the races of the South Sea Islands, against which they had no immunity,

so that in most of the islands there is but a mere remnant of their

former inhabitants.


As the bird became almost extinct, its skin became a desirable

addition to the cabinets of collectors and soon after its general

disappearance in most parts of the North Island collectors vied with

each other in their search for this illusive bird. About 1880 it became

known that the mountains of the Little Barrier Island were the last

refuge of the Stitch-bird and collectors journeyed over there in search

of it. In fact one Austrian skin collector named Keischek, who was

probably one of the worst bird butchers that New Zealand or any

other country has ever seen, sojourned over three months there with

the express purpose of killing every possible Stitch-bird. Ten birds

in all were secured, which shows how rare it must have been. And

so, apparently, the Stitch-bird made its exit from this plane, and the

various collectors were able to gloat over the skins as the very last

of the species. But, in spite of the endeavours of the collector to

exterminate this bird and fortunately for posterity, a few must have

been overlooked, finding refuge in some of the densely-forested and

almost inaccessible gullies between the mountains. About 1905 this

beautiful island was declared a bird sanctuary, and after that the

birds were again noticed in very small numbers.


What a thrill it was, the day after we landed on the island, when

working our way up a deep gully, which at certain seasons is the bed

of a rushing mountain stream, all overhung by giant tree ferns and

the beautiful Nikau palms, the great boulders over which we had to

climb covered with an immense variety of mosses and ferns, when



