OUR USEFUL BIRDS

Hokitika Guardian, 11 September 1930, Page 2

OUR USEFUL BIRDS

(Auckland ‘‘Star.”) In a new book on New Zealand’s birds Mr Oliver, the director of the Dominion Museum in Wellington, bears expert testimony to tlie great economic value off our indigenous Avifauna. Apart from the aesthetic and scientific interest of the birds, they are of very great, usefulness to man in. the.destruction of noxious insects. Our birds arc insect-eaters on an enormous scale, and they are also of considerable value In the economy of a forest by cross-pollin-ating flowers and distributing seeds. Even the little fantail is a great deal more than a pretty twittering flutterex of the bush. It is a great eater off insects and entirely useful in orchards and forest, and at times it is particularly welcome for the way in which it clears houses and tents of flies.

Without an adequate supply of birds Mr Oliver emphasises,.>the pastoral industries in New Zealand could not exist. Bards are necessary to eat the larvae of beetles which eat the roots of the grass, and caterpillars * which eat the leaves of crops. Here one* m two foreign birds have proved off service. Tlie sparrow and Btarling, introduced in the early days of settlement to combat the insect plague, have increased to such an extent as ter become a nuisance, and so their value to pastures is apt to he overlooked. Native birds could do much in the pastures and orchards if they were allowed,, but they are discouraged by cats, rats and other introduced animals, and also in some districts by the introduced little owl. In orchards, as Mr Oliver shows, birds work much more efficiently and cheaply than sprays in clearing out scale insects and aphides.

In the forest every part has its particular species of birds attending to its insect inhabitants. On the ground it is the kiwi, the weka, robin, tomtit and formerly the native thrush. The tree trunks and branches are thoroughly exploited by. the bellbird, rifleman, grey warbler (riroriro), kaka parrot and the saddleback (tielce); the fantail is the chief snapper-up of insects on the wing. The kaka is not only one of the most valuable birds that assist in pollinating 'forest trees, but it is equally valuable in seeking grubs from both living and dead timber. The beautiful and melodious tui repays its protection by the law by its work of destroying insects, including the bluegum scale and by cross-pollinating forest trees. As for the little silvereye, it can quickly clean up an orchard or a rose garden or scale insects and aphides, and many other species of New Zealand birds could do the same if it were not for Introduced creatures.

The policy of introducing a harmful kind of bird, or mammal, to eradicate another is always likely to prove disastrous through the new animal getting beyond control. The author of this excellent book instances the acclimatisation of the little owl, called also the German owl, to deal with the introduced small bird nuisance. In Otago it is reported to have done this work well, but it lias proved a pest by killing our native bird. It has displaced the native morepork in some places and along the outskirts of the bush it takes heavy toll of native birds, including the bellbird and that busy little insect-hunter, the fantail.