TUIS AND BIRDS.

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 247, 20 October 1942, Page 4

TUIS AND BIRDS.

Sir, — Your correspondent of Thursday last who signed himself "G. G." wonders "if any Marlborough people have seen the blue mountain duck in recent years." It is about 30 years since I took up one of the runs, which is bounded on the south by the Jam stream; which joins the Clarence at the foot of Tapuaenuku. When I first took up the country the blue (or whistling) duck was fairly numerous in the upper reaches of the Jam. They were very tame and could be easily knocked over by a musterer's stick or caught by a dog. When on the wing they are very fast. In the last few years I held the country I saw no blue ducks. Stoats and weasels, I think, are responsible for the extermination. The, stoat is an enterprising chap. He will swim for mil.es and climb trees like a squirrel. I saw one in the top of a tree and it was running round with as much impudence as a squirrel. The following may be of interest to some of your readers: At the upper reaches of the Jam a small gorge creek comes in from the mountain range. About a quarter of a mile up the creek there is a large overhanging rock underneath which are two miners' cradles made of totara. One of my musterers pointed them out to me, and from where we were standing they looked like two large sheep. He said he found them quite by accident and examined them closely. There is evidently gold there or the miners would never have made the cradles. There is no totara within miles of the place where the cradles are. It would be heavy work carrying the timber over such rough country. I interviewed the oldest inhabitants of Kaikoura to find out if they knew how those cradles came into existence. I was told that some years before two men came into Kaikoura with gold, and, after having a good spree, they bought stores, etc., and disappeared. They would not tell where they came from nor where they were going. They were never heard of again. Probably they got caught in a storm and perished. I presume that the cradles are still there waiting for someone to work them. So far as totara is concerned, "Time may rage, but rage in vain."

F.

LISSAMAN.

Picton.