DESTRUCTIVE OWLS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 256, 21 June 1932, Page 8

DESTRUCTIVE OWLS

BIRD PROTECTION SOCIETY MAKES REPRESENTATIONS TO GOVERNMENT. HEAYY TOLL OF SMALL BIRDS Further complaints against the destruction of small birds by imported German owls came before tbe New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society at Wellington on Wednesday, and it was decided to make representations to the Internal Affairs Department on the matter. A letter from Mr. F. Milner, rector of Waitaki Boys' High School, stated that every autumn it had been a joy to have frequent visitations to their rooms from fantails and to hear the plaintive trill of the riroriro in the shrubberies, but this autumn a number of German owls had taken up their residence in a nearby belt of eucalyptus and had wiped out every one of these native birds. The whole of the district was being denuded of the small birds in the same way, Mr. Milner said. Writing' later, . Mr. Milner mentioned that he had received many distressing accounts of the depredation by these owls, which were now to be found on Stewart Island and had been reported as seen at Rotorua. He inquired whether the birds could be trapped, or reduced by the offering of a bounty without endangering the morepork, believing that something would have to be done quickly to remedy the position. It was also reported that in the Waitaki district a hawlc had been seen feeding on a bird carcase which had been indentified by the few wing feathers which remained as that of a grey teal. One of the feathers showed distinct marks of a shot. The grey teal was an absolutely protected bird, but it had evidently been wounded by a sportsman. The secretary, Mr. E. V. Sanderson, reported that he had approached the Auckland Acclimatisation Society with reference to the expenditure of license holders' money on the f eet of hawks without any scientific research having been made as to whether the hawk was a benefactor to mankind or otherwise. In reply, he had been informed that the society had decided to make research on the question.