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Southland Times, Issue 710, 16 August 1867, Page 3

The Blight Bird.. — The "Hew Zealand Herald" says : — " The little birds which are literally swarming through the Province, and to whose sudden appearance amongst us some few •weeks since we yesterday drew attention, would seem to have spread equally over the entire island. One of them may be seen in tho A uckland museum. It is called the ' White Eye* Zosterops dorsalis. We extract the following from the ' Hawke's Bay Times,' of the 20th inst. : — ' We have recently noticed extensive flocks of a small bird of the linnet kind, which seem to be of recent arrival from parts unknown, ard we are informed by parties to whom we have mentioned the fact tli at Hawke's Bay is not singular in the presence of these little strangers, but that they are to be seen almost (perhaps quite) all over the Northern Island of the colony, having been noticed in Wellington and Auckland, where they have received the name of the ' Blight Bird,' from the fact of their destroying all the blight from the -fruit trees.' " [The birds abo-ve spoken of have been known in Nelson for several years by the name' of the. " Silver Eye," and are now so numerous that they destroy iruit to a serious extent. Last summer the grapes in many gardens vrere entirely destroyed by these birds, and we saw pearß left hanging until over ripe, wMch ; they had scooped out, leaving a»small shett of rind. The second crop of fijis alsff sutier.-'d from them. As far as we can learn, tHese biids werjs unknown here until within the lastj,few years, or if to be found, their numbers wore z|pt po grift* W