THE SMALL BIRDS' QUESTION.

Motueka Star, Volume II, Issue 104, 12 August 1902, Page 4

THE SMALL BIRDS' QUESTION.

n tb,s Jast meeting ,of , the WellingJ d«alt 1 -W 'tih' t he (! smalj - birds /ftpjsanpe, land, edf in . the fy? »%-:■ r teWipt -to c ,bt a. in j lyg isl at iye autl ,ori,ty to es¥ertniyet p- ouivifnall/ able*.' Tjae pgper very, fully the 1 hatqre,and exten^pf, the injuries dbde tp animal and (Vegetable produo tiohwTjy incepts; and the use of '.ipsec* t * VOrfms ../bird*, and, r particularly uijtigafe ng. speh. injuritg. . fy e j'/fys ef .crops suffef4 d /fron> the deprt daubns of eev- ; tbih knecies of/ yj.leopteia and, lepidopt^vaV.^eitiipr.^.,jniptarteil, ftp indigenous. In Norths Ca 1 ‘.terhury also, moths of all Kinds., ab jufidigi and catei pillaiK Conitmtted ravages among the cropn, and since settling,, in YYelliugton the speak ei had observed .the l'avages of idseets hef(e. ( Nature maintained the balance among birds/ leasts, jusects r plants, ete., and; he foretold disaster if "thb small birds were extei ruiuated^

, Sir James Hector made a few reupon .qvei-al species of .New Zealand birds which were exhibited and Whicb ivere entirely the friends of mail. It would be, he thought, cruel, I absurd and utterly idiotic to pass an Act to wipe a way all the small birds inrl iscii mi n a tel v. He instanced several cases of insects or caterpillars making it impossible t> grow certain crops until the ariival of difierent birds killed them of!’. It was possible they might kill their best friends and put themselves back as iar as 1850 or 1860, by exterminating the small bids.

Replying to a question as to the use of blackbirds, S r James Hector said lie could say that at the present time, when there was no fruit or grain, the blackbirds we,i;e very busy. Mi R. C. Harding said France, which had done a great deal to exterminate sru.tjl birds, had found out its mistake. He tin u*rht hiids wt re often blatned for perforating fruit, w:hereas they had merely done so to extract insects.

Mr T. W. Kirk, F.L'S., Government Bjologist, said he had long ago devoted his spare time for two whole seasons to studying the breeding habits of sparrows The sparrow bred at a rate thkt was absolutely incredible. The question to be decided was:.Were the sparrow’s wages too high? He thought they Were. i; The wages of the starling weie infinitesimal compared with the good Te did. The hedge sparrow levied no toll at all. The wages of the blackbird were undoubtedly too high. The white-eye, was changing its habits and was now beginning to take fruit. Mr G . Hog ben said he had noticed from his own observation in South Canterbury that his garden yielded more fruit d.u ing the years when the blackbi ids were most looked after. In the 1 year 1,889, when the crops in Canterbury were phenomenally good, the sparrows were particularly numerous.

Sir James Hector stated that he believed birds attacked fruit for the sake of the moisture it contained. In Canterbury he bad be]en shown through an Oivliard where the owner provided small tioughs of water • for the birds, arid he found that this kept the birds '■way from ti e fruit.