IMPORTED BIRDS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 289, 1 May 1911, Page 7

IMPORTED BIRDS

(Contributed.)

j Among imported birds the sparrow ' and blackbird seem destined to play an I important part in the future. I may r say the sparrow has done so already. • The cheeky, cunning, town-loving spar- ; row is never found any great, distance from houses. Last winter I set a trap, for birds, one that could be pulled down from inside the house, but not a sparrow did I catch, but minahs and yellow-hammers I caught in quantities. New Zealand seems especially suited for sparrows and blackbirds, and I have heard the blackbirds in the most remote districts, ten or fifteen years ago. I believe they are double as numerous already as they are in England. What will they be finally ? The tui, a similar native bird, does not seem inclined to approach man, and at Home blackbirds were quite as shy, but they seem to swarm about houses here to build, and I think the cause is that they know their enemies will not follow them—such as hawks and stoats. The domestic cat is a terror to weasels and rats, a,nd yet she. does not seem to be aware of young blackbirds that are within forty yards or so. The young blackbird would be ideal food for hawks, and I have seen them searching for nests only a few yards above low bush, but the blackbirds have deserted j this and build in the pinns insignis, regular rookeries they are, I may say. I never knew a blackbird to build in an evergreen tree at Home. S So the habits of the bird have changed. They seem to keep two springs also, May and September, and some say the note has changed and de- 1 terioratcd. I can see no change. It would be a good idea to get records of the blackbird here and in England. It is certain fruitgrowers will not bless those who imported the blackbird. The bird is fifty times worse than minahs, thrashes, or starlings, in connection with fruit. So we pay dear for music. Then the starling has similar habits to those at Home in congregating, but it seems to nest very frequently in houses, and noisy houses at that. The railway stations about Eketahuna, I noticed, were favorite places, and the mother almost touched people's heads coming and going. There is a good field for a naturalist to study such points.