FEATHERS AND FURS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3729, 6 February 1891, Page 2

FEATHERS AND FURS.

[From The Feathered World]

The following New Zealand items appeared in a recent number of the ' Feathered World,"a weekly London paper devoted to poultry, pis-eons, etc:—

All the principal centres have large poultry, pigeon, canary, and cat societies, and hold ODe or two bliows yearly, usually in June or July. At the four chief towns, Auckland, Wellington, (jhnstchurjh, and Dunedin, the entries generally total over 800, and large amounts are given in prizes. In connection with most of the shows, art unions ate almost invariably held, and a great many more tickets are sold, in order to have a chance in the drawing, for which the principal prize is a piano, section of land, or suite of furniture, with fancy fowls, pigeons, canaries, and sundries for the others. As most of the tickets are thus sold and the money received before the show is held there is not so much chance of loss by the falling off in attendance on account of bad weather and other causes.

The Sparrows and the Starlings can be seen in thousands, and the former are a perfect pest. Large numbers of Goldfinches are annually tr pped, and sent to Australia, where they do not thrive so well, and where they command good prices. Among the larger varieties of the " feathered world," the Pheasant and Quail are here, but are as yet " protected" by the Government, having a close season and a license being required to shoot. Ostriches, (which I suppose you will class as birds, though rather large) have been successfully imported, and bred at Auckland and at Cbristchurch. Mr John Matson, of the latter toon, has a fine lot which can daily be seen in a paddock, close to the roadside, quite contented and happy. A beautiful fan composed of the first feathers was sent home to Her Majesty some little time ago, I am sorry to say that " Crer Rabbit" is to be seen in p?rtsof New Zealand in thousands, and his socalled " natural enemies" —the stoat, weasel, ferret, and the domestic pussy—have been turned out in large numbers to " polish him off" ; but it has been generally found and admitted that the natural enemies make for the homesteads of the settlers and there commit ravages—clearing hen-roosts, &c.—and are eventually killed by the farmers, who prefer t|ie disease to the remedy. 1 think it is also generally admitted that they are not a success as the natural enemy of the rabbit, and. taking the rabbit pest altogether, it cannot be considered that it is all bad, as, during the winter months, they furnish work for many hundreds of boys and men, and the pelts already form a large item of our exports. The only vermin New Zealand possessed, prior to the introduction of those mentioned, were a small poisonous spider known as the katipo and the kea ; the latter, a native parrot with a tremendous curved beak, which it drives through the back of the sheep in the wild country, in order to get at the kidneys and fat, of wljich it i§ particularly fond.