Acclimatisation.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 50, 17 May 1884, Page 6

Acclimatisation.

Reports como from all parts of the Provincial District that pheasants are unprecedentedly scarce. The total extinction of the bird, as the raoa disappeared before the Maori hunter, is not impossible, and the labour and money spent on accli. matisation will thus bo brought to naught. The scarcity of game can only be attributed to one cause — the destruction of the birds during the breeding season ; and unless settlers really wish to get rid of their feathered friends they will have to enlist themselves in an association for their protection. The Otago Acclimatisation Society complain of the same reckless destruction. In their annual report presented at a meeting of subscribers a fortnight ago, the following paragraph appears :—": — " With the exception of hares, other game — as pheasants and partridges — are becoming yearly more scarce, while- small birds continue to increase. There has been much outcry about the small-bird pest, mainly, we believe, because what grain they eat is seen and grudged them ; while the immense service they do to farmers all the year round, but particularly during the nesting season (the young being bred exclusively on insects), is quite overlooked, But for these small birds our farmers would have much worse times under caterpillars, slugs, and other insect pests. The gocl done by starlings alone is simply incalculable, and farmers themselves were most anxious to get all the small biuls they could some fitteon yearn ago, when first introduced into Otago/' Oar fanners should consider the pros, and cons, of this subject carefully ere it is too late. If it be proved that the birds! cost more to feed than they earn by the defetruction of insects, by all means let the work of extermination go on ; but it should be remembered that this is a climate in which insoct life becomes terribly prolific, and the pests of other countries are being introduced and are ! spreading rapidly. if the insectivorous ' birds that have been established by the Society's operations extending over fifteen years aie deliberately destroyed, it will be an uphill task to wake up enthusiasm enough for their re-introduction. The Otago Acclimatisation Society, like our own, have su tiered many disappointments with salmon. The report says :—: — "of the "sfilino salar, the true salmon, your Council have no information to communicate. The last fry (2,500) weie put into the Aparima River in October, IS7S, and have not reappeared. Dr. Hector has long held the opinion that the temperature of the sea on our coast is too high for the salmon ; but from such experiments as your Council have been able to make, it would appear that there is no great difference in that respect from the temperature of the 3ea on the English coast. At Dunedin cross-wharf, the highest »vi face temperature of the sea during summer was G9deg. Fahrenheit; and the lowest, during winter, 40deg. On the Irish Coast, during the summer, it is recorded by Sir Wyville Thomson as 67.4 Fahrenheit for the highest temperature. One of the fish commissioners from Canada, when attending the Fisheries Exhibition in London of ISS3, affirmed that experiments with salmon fry in Canada showed that the salmon will only return from the sea ,to it-f own native river when that i>< aNo the home of the parent li^h. Tlii-. would account at once for the failure of all our uxpciimunts with the JCno-li-h salmon, it correct; and it cannot be doubted that the salmon have only returned when liberated as try in the same river horn which their parents were taken in all cases. But, on the other hand, it is equally true that the United States Fish Commission succeeded in introducing the salnio salar into the Connecticut River, where previously it has disappeared for three-quarters of a century. In 187S several hundred salmon from 101b to lolb in weight were caught running up this river, theresultof fry planted there in May, 1874. Now, these experiments are apparently very contradictory, yet the explanation may lie in this theory : That the young salmon will return to the river in which they have been planted, from the sea, provided the chemical constitution of the water is identical with that to which their parents were accustomed. Facts of a similar nature from experience in English rivers are somewhat conflicting also ; so more patience will become necessary ere this difficult question is settled. At the same time the whole number — say 4,000 fry —put into the Aparima do not probably afford an adequate trial for a New Zealand rivor with such a highly-bred fish. It i» alho quite possible that by keeping the young salmon in ponds fed by river water until they produce ova, the necessary conditions may be fulfilled, and that the young so hatched will return from the sea to the river. By the British King, of London, a lot of Forth River salmon ova from Mr C C. Capel were received by our manager, Mr Deans, at Wellington, on March 20. They were found to be all dead, chiefly no doubt owing to the heat they had been expofeea to. Although the boxes were in the icehouse and covered with ice, the thermometer on the trays below the ice showed a a rise from 48deg, Fah. on January 21 to 78deg. on February 10. Mr Shepherd, the purser, took great care of the ova, and used 1,1201b of ice, 341b being the most required in one day. The icehouse was too near the steam-steering apparatus on deck. This salmon ova experiment with Mr Capel cost the Society nearly L2OO. On the other hand, Sir James Maitland was good enough to present his ova to us. "Californian salmon, although a partial success in Canterbury, has utterly failed in Otago to show itself, and it is now six years since the fry— 3l,ooo altogether— were put into the Waipahi and Kakanui Rivers. About 20,000 fry were put into some Canterbury rivers in December, 1876, and in July, 1880, several specimens were netted in the Cam by the late Dr. Campbell, the largest of which weighed 81b ; and this fish has been preserved in spirits in Christchurch. From a description of it sent to Dr. Bean, of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, he concluded that it was undoubtedly ft Caljfprnian salmon,"