STUDY OF BIRD LIFE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 146, 16 March 1939, Page 8

STUDY OF BIRD LIFE

Proposal To Form Dominion Wide Society FIELD FOR RESEARCH Dominion Special Service. DUNEDIN, March 15. A movement which, it is hoped, will result in the formation of a Dominionwide society to study bird life, is on foot in New Zealand. Discussing the proposal, Professor B. J. Marples, Professor of Zoology at the University of Otago, said that the study of birds through cagmg and ringing was extensively carried out in other countries, and it was hoped that when the society was formed widespread observations of bird life in.the Dominion would be carried out by ringing birds and then releasing them. It was possible when these birds were found later to gain valuable information concerning their habits, their life history and their movements in the changing seasons. Some work in this direction has already been carried out in Otago, and to a lesser extent elsewhere in' New Zealand. Penguins at Stewart Island, around the Catlins coast, and on Otago Peninsula have been ringed and already the Otago Museum has received a good many reports of movements of ringed birds which indicate that extremely valuable results will be achieved when the scheme has been under way for some further time. By this method it should be possible to determine whether Stewart Island penguins travel up the coast of the South Island, and whether those which frequent the rocky bays and inlets between Otago Peninsula and Bluff remain more or less in the one place or visit different colonies. Recently a ringed penguin was found dead on Murdering Beach, beyond the entrance to Otago Harbour, and it was shown that its deatli was caused by oil discharged from a ship. In the" neighbourhood of the Franz Josef Glacier some keas had been ringed with the object of finding whether they cross to the eastern side of the Southern Alps, but ringing has not been carried out to any extent elsewhere in the Dominion. , Professor Marples said that the society which it is proposed to form will not be open only to those of scientific attainments, but it is hoped that it will attract all persons interested in bird life throughout the Dominion, so that observations from as many points as possible may 'be forwarded to a central office, where they may be collected and examined with a view to gaining the greatest possible amount of information about birds.