SCRAPS OF NATURAL HISTORY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14987, 6 June 1914, Page 8

SCRAPS OF NATURAL HISTORY.

(Bt Caxt-bbxtbt.)

(WWLUUcr -wmTTEX FOR ."IHB PRESS.")

''■■:'■. 125. -Wexas and pheasants. From some friend whoso handwriting recognise, I have.received an ''Field newspaper of October 21st, 1071, containing a marked letter above the really simple and enlightening signature of "K." Kouldn't wed be less, * suppose that means. However, though tho letter is by way of being ancient history, it is not the less interesting on that account, and I venture a brief extract concerning wekas a BU pheasants:—

1 may say that tho weka is tho only native vornnn. existing iv Now •tealauu, and tno owner oi the Kanau must curse the day wnen he introduced hiui to tnat lovely island. You can g o _ ao sport out of sucn a biid, umess aunting him with a terrier in the nioomight can be called a sport; and thougii a Alaori may eat him, no white man will ever caro to repeat tho experiment, fceldom heard in tho daytime, toward sunset ho begins to prowl I a ". roa d, and signal his too numerous tneuus witn an everlasting week-a- ---[ week. Later in the oid forest you may hear a faint scratchiug and'turning over of dry leaves, a sharpish whistle followed oy a curious 'utu-um.' and peering under the scrub you can see a strange bird, which' in the dusk looks not unlike a hen pheasant. Shoot him then, and if you take your prey home, extract the oil for your guns. No other, good will you get from him, unless you - wish to manufacture an ancient Maori clock for somo friend at Home. I never have heard a weka on any of the islands in the xiauraki Gulf, except tho Kanau, and thero they wero certainly introduced."

'The pheasant has no more deadly enemy than the weka, and there will bo no chance of a good head of game unless the native bird be destroyed, for the carrion crow is not a worse eggsucker. In few countries can better pheasant shooting bo found than in some parts of the North Island, and in the wild districts of Brodie's Peninsula, and the great swamps and flats bordering the river Avenue, tho bird has v £° V? nge and raad e good use of Jl" r.u urthcr - south - ab °ut Auckland, I the Chinese pheasant has done wonderl fully well, and I believe there are spots where a good hard-working gun, with a good: dog could "kill twentf or Thirty te? C S 3r ".' Th , fi E^lish Pheasant on Brodie s Peninsula seems to live almost entirely on grasshoppers, and though n certain districts''he may do. somo httle mischief, I think he if worth his wm P ™ i„ v im V na , y c «me when men will go to New Zealand for the sake of the pheasant shooting alone." 1 hose- must havo -been happy times when "K." could shoot his ants ma single day. Now && his *ysh, the wekas are decreasing: but W 05 " th V^° ats and teasels/ anotl^Kn.; 1 "' ! nd lt \ OCCUpy another half century of strictest keepering to get them out. •