Correspondence

Feilding Star, 29 June 1893, Page 2

Correspondence

THE KIWITEA MAGGOT. TO THE EDITOH OF THE STAR. a Sir,— The Kiwitea grass destroyer is B probably the green beetle grub, so well known over all the island. In grass * lands, dry and strong soils are its favourite * breeding grounds, and in scrub lands the grub is buried under thick mossi The £ best knvicn way to combat this pest is to feed the grass off very short in the summer time, as the nature of the beetle * leads it to lay its eggs under thick cover; These grubs are too deeply buried for t small birds to get at them, but they may be of some use in following up the digs dings of wekas and pheasants. I have c often watched the weka's tearing up grass and soil to get at them, and it is astonish* mg how much ground they can skin in a short time ; one weka is worth a thousand small birds as a grub or snail deyourer, and kingfishers do also ' devour slugs; and yet our Acclimatising Society have placed a price on the heads of both these valuable birds. I believe sparrows ' assist slugs to increase in numbers as I ■ can never see them destroying slags, and > they or some other small birds have eaten ■ up a thin worm that I used to see preying ■ on slugs; indeed, the sparrow is an -evil 1 bird and does evil only where ever he is 1 taken to. Our crops were not so much pestered with creeping plagues . before he was brought here as they are. now, he levies a heavier tax on the agriculturist than does our General or Local Governments combined, and he threatens to ex» ■ terminate some of our beautiful native birds by devouring all their food supplies. 1 He devours the flax and rata honey, and I have seen a flock of them alight on a white pine tree where tui's were feeding 1 and after a long battle, or rather hunt after the sparrows for they dared not to 1 face the tuis in battle, the glorions sweet ' throated birds had to fiy away and leave the barbarous chattering invaders in possesion, and ere they leave a tree they strip it of its berries. I am, etc., Farmer.