1922. j Bathgate.—Changes in Fauna and Flora of Otago. 279 
Weka were plentiful among the rocks and scrub in the gorge near the 
Styx, as also blue duck, an odd kingfisher now and then, with a few fantails 
and tomtits. The little grebe (or dabchick) was not uncommon in the 
quiet reaches of the river or deeper lagoons. The native ground-lark 
was abundant. Both the pied oyster-catcher and the dotterel used to 
breed on the top of almost bare terraces, among the stones and sparse 
tussocks.” 
Although, according to Buller, the black oyster-catcher is far more 
abundant in the southern parts of New Zealand than the pied species, it 
is remarkable that Mr. Buchanan never saw either a black oyster-catcher 
or a black stilt on the Maniototo. Mr. Buchanan also mentions that the 
grass on the hills swarmed with grasshoppers, and cicadas were abundant, 
as also were lizards of at least two species among the spear-grass and on 
rocky ground, and on the hilltops a much larger one, which he estimates 
as about 9 in. long, and conspicuously marked with yellow on a brownish 
ground. 
So far as my cursory observations go, I feel sure that several of the birds 
mentioned are not now to be found in Central Otago, and the numbers of 
others have been greatly diminished. The cause, so far as the water-birds 
are concerned, must be largely due to the pollution of the river by the 
gold-mining operations, which, if they did not (as was probable) exterminate 
many forms of life affording food for the birds, by rendering the water 
opaque and covering the gravel beaches with a deposit of sludge would 
prevent the birds from seeing and capturing their prey. Now that gold¬ 
mining is on the wane the water is not quite so muddy as it was, but I fear 
it will not recover its pristine purity, for in the old days the hills were 
covered with scrub and grass, of which every tussock was surrounded by 
a mat of decaying leaves, through which the rain-water slowly percolated ; 
but now, owing to the denudation of the slopes, the rain rushes down with 
greater violence, carrying with it much of the soil. Only the afforestation 
of the hills could restore the purity of the stream, and if that were done 
it would also do much to minimize the extent of the floods on the Taieri 
Plain. 
The botanical changes are many and varied, and I am unable to deal 
with the suppression of many of the lowlier natives by the aggressive 
foreigners. The Town Belt when I first knew it was almost wholly clothed 
with indigenous vegetation, which, so far as the open spaces are concerned, 
has been in very large measure supplanted by exotics. These open spaces 
were mainly occupied by the native flax (Phormium tenax) (which at the 
south end of the Belt was cleared off by the earliest golf club), interspersed 
with dwarf shrubs, mostly small-leaved coprosmas, while, between these, 
native grasses and other native plants covered the ground. White clover 
(Trifolium repens) had begun to intrude, and grew in dampish hollows and 
alongside the tracks, but cocksfoot ( Dactylis glomerata ) and the so-called 
capeweed ( Hypochoeris radicata), now so abundant, had not gained a footing. 
The chief change in the neighbourhood of Dunedin is the annihilation 
of the great forest which covered the Peninsula and extended on the 
northern shore of the harbour from the Heads to about Ravensbourne, and 
thence back over the summit of Mount Cargill to Waitati. Skirting the 
upper end of the North-east Valley, it covered Pine Hill, and, dropping 
into the valley of the Leith, which it filled, climbed upwards, clothing the 
slopes of Flagstaff, where a remnant still exists, as do some others in 
