A PROTECTED PIRATE

Grey River Argus, 26 April 1911, Page 2

A PROTECTED PIRATE

1 here dwells in the high tower ot a Government Department at Washington a protected bird, in which .v.. people of Washington seem to take as much interest as we do in Pelorus jack. This is a duck hawk, or peregrine falcon, a brigand bird and a wanderer on the face of the earth. It has been called a robber and, a pirate a and It deserves these terms, for it is a bird of prey and there are people in Washington who would take its life if they could.. But the authorities insist that the bird must lie preserved. It is a rare bird and a true falcon, and -the harm that it does is held to be nothing- when compared with the sentiment and interest attached to it. . President Roosevelt took it under his protec-

tion, and gave orders that if anyone was found attempting to molest it, he should be notified at once. Four times departments have interfered to save the bird from the wrath of the public. . Every morning in winter it leaves the tower to hunt teal among the marshes of the % Potomac, and when game cannot be found it turns to the domestic pigeons of the capital. Once it dropped a dead pigeon on to the head of a pedestrian in Pennsylvania avenue. Complaint was lodged at once, and some underling, who did not know that there were havvfcs and hawks, sent a man on to the roof with a gun to await the bird's return. But the bird was wary, and hovered just out of range. Friends' of the bird mingled with the crowd in the street, and appeals were at once made to the authorities to save the .bird's life. The Post-master-General of the United States happened to be an ornithologist, . and as soon as he heard of the attack on the bird, he drove the gunner from the roof and nailed up the door leading to the tower. Then enemies of the bird secured permission from the Police Department to kill "within the district a murderous bird bent on killing all the Washington pigeons," and lay in wait for the pirate on roofs of buildings near by. The hawk's friends immediately "called the attention of the Police Department to the fact that tinder the laws of tlie District of Columbia, it was illegal to kill any birds of prey save two kinds specified, and the shooting licenses issued the.' day before were cancelled. Once word came that ''Captan Kidd" had been caught in a steel trap while trying to raid a poultry yard, and , a crowd quickly gathered,, to find that -the marauder was merely a low-caste rat-catching hawk. And while the people speculated on the identity of the bird, a shadow passed overhead — "Captain Kidd" was on his way to • his daily meal of teal. At lates£ advices he was still hunting under the aegis of the Star-spangled Banner.

Mr. A. Le Soeuf, ; ; at Wellington, stated that recently 500 opossum skins, from New Zealand, were sold in Sydney. The skins had been roughly torn off and dried in the sun. Being, on this account, in poor condition they brought only half a crown each. In good condition, and properly cured they would have sold for 7s 6d apiece. There is a big and growing demand in Sydney for opossum skins, according to Mr Le Soeuf.

The census a-eturns for the Inangahua County are as follows: — Antonio's, 997 (males 750, females, 247) ; Boatman's, 557 (355 and 302) ; Crushington. 742 (540 and 202) ; Murray, 294 (165 and 129. ; Town of Reefton, 1548 (826 and 722) ; Reefton riding, exclusive of Town of Reefton, 367 (188 and 179). Total number of males 2824; females 1681; grand total 4505.

A remarkable case of deliberate suicide by an animal was witnessed by a resident of Hamilton on Sunday •afternoon, says the Auckland "Star." A sorry-looking 1 ;grey horse ■ was seen standing- with its fore feet in the water, on the Hamilton East side of the Waikato River, at a. spot near Mr. H. J. Greenslade's residence, ffazing despondently into the stream. It occupied this position for about hailtf ai)/ hour, ( wfo.en tft {sulddenly jumpe dinto the river, and repeatedly immersed its head, slowly drifting down stream the while, until when about fifty yards distant from the spot where the plunge was taken the poor beast was as dead as the proverbial doornail.