NATIVE BIRDS AS NATIONAL MONUMENTS.

Forest and Bird, Issue 15, 1 July 1928, Page 18

NATIVE BIRDS AS NATIONAL MONUMENTS.

By J. G. Myers, Sc.D., F.E.S.,

New Zealand Member of the 'lnternational Committee for Bird Preservation.

It is always interesting to know how other people and other nations are tackling the problems which engage our own attention. In situation, extent and geographical conditions, Japan has much in common with New Zealand. It has also an abundant bird fauna, much richer in species than our own, although with a very much smaller percentage of peculiar forms. It should be of special interest to New Zealanders to know how the Japanese regard their birds, and what steps they take to preserve them amid all the dangers of a rapidly increasingpopulation and an ever-extending industrialism. We know, of course, that Japan has been phenomenally quick to adopt the most enlightened features of Western civilisation, and we remember also that her own culture is unequalled for its appreciation of natural beauty—an appreciation so widespread among the masses that the Nordic vandalism which crops up far too frequently in our country is probably quite unknown there.

Dr. Nagamichi Kuroda brought with him to the International Committee Meeting at Geneva in May, 1928, a mass of most interesting information on the present position of bird protection in Japan. To a New Zealander the greatest and most striking difference, as the problem presents itself in Japan, lies in the very dense population—a population which, even more than in the thickly-peopled lands of Southern Europe, looks considerably to the birds as a source of food. Man is thus there potentially a much greater direct enemy of birds than in New Zealand.

There are three main reasons for protecting birds—the economic, the scientific and the aesthetic. Japan, by a stroke of administrative genius, welds the two latter together and, under the Taw (1919) for Preserving Scenery, Historic and Natural Monuments, protects all her more distinctive species as “natural monuments.” In preserving the breeding-places and special haunts of these birds, an appeal is made also to the popular veneration for the things of Old Japan. These areas are protected as “Breeding places of birds famous in Japan,” as “Places famous for these birds flocking there,” “as “Valuable breeding places of famous birds” and so on. It is interesting that long before these sentiments were expressed in modern legislation they were in many cases felt very strongly among the people. Thus Whooper Swans visit one locality only in large flocks and for this reason: “The inhabitants of this district have, since the olden times, regarded swans as messengers of God, protected

them very carefully and excluded any hunters from elsewhere. In this manner, they are adequately protected and preserved in this district.”: (Uchida).. In the same way the ptarmigan of the Japanese Alps has long been preserved on traditional religious grounds by the peasantry, but is now in danger from mountaineers, i.e., tourists, who have gained some of that Western enlightenment which prompts us to scatter waste-paper and empty bottles in scenic reserves and heather in Tongariro National Park. • • . • A,, ; v

So much for the special protection of Japan’s more distinctive birds. It is prohibited also to capture any other birds or mammals save those actually listed as game. With a poor and dense population there is a strong tendency to widen the conception of game, and Japan is no exception. Japanese “game” includes such unlikely birds as albatrosses, shags, - falcons, crows and ravens, sparrows, thrushes and finches, besides such others as pheasants and duck, which alone excite our own gastronomic interest. But none of these birds may be captured or shot save by license, and during a restricted season.

New Zealand also has very definite and very comprehensive bird protection legislation and game laws. Wherein lies the Japanese superiority, which it is the purpose of this article to show? It lies in. the fact that, whereas in New Zealand at least in the back-blocks the bird protection laws are practically a dead letter, in Japan they are enforced in : such detail that the Government is able to supply an exact numerical return of the number of birds caught every year. Thus the list for the open season of 1925 (October to April) includes 10,524,542 birds, among which may be mentioned, for instance, 2,240,121 tree sparrows 'and ,338,218 dusky ouzels (a kind of thrush) (Uchida, 1928). This rigid enforcement is effected by strict and direct Government control, the game laws being administered by the Department of Agriculture and Forestry, and the hunting licenses issued by the Governor in. each Prefecture. Experts are stationed at all the local prefectural; offices for seeing to the local affairs regarding the protection of birds and mammals.” (Uchida). In addition the Government maintains an Experiment Station t for Ornithology and Mammalogy; breeds game-birds for distribution throughout the country, and sends out as many as 19,000 : nest- ■ boxes per year for small insectivorous birds. A hundred stations are installed at lighthouses, schools and so on for observing bird migration. . •

Hunting is entirely prohibited in sanctuaries, of which Japan has 444. In addition there are 20 other areas in which certain special kinds of birds or mammals only are protected; 129 hunt’ ing grounds in which only very 'restricted hunting is allowed, and 28 “Villagers’ hunting grounds,” where, the privilege of

netting ducks is confined to the inhabitants. Finally it is forbidden to catch birds of any kind in strategic zones, precincts of shrines and temples, public gardens, highways and graveyards (Kuroda).

In New Zealand, we have a vastly greater proportion of distinctive birds than Japan. Nearly all our land-birds are found nowhere else in the world. But so far from counting them among the greatest and most glorious of our natural and national monuments, we have replaced them, as far as possible, in all the settled districts by foreign birds. The birds of pakeha New Zealand are sparrows, starlings and thrushes as much as its currency is pounds, shillings and pence. May the present era of intense national feeling bring to the Dominion a proper pride in her own natural productions while there is yet time to preserve to posterity, in extensive reserves, at least a semblance of the real New Zealand!