Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/230

224 It is only just to the New Zealand Government to point out that several years ago the provisions of the 'Wild Birds Protection Acts' were extended so as to include some species that were being destroyed indiscriminately and Little Barrier Island and Resolution Island have been set apart as bird preserves.

Sir Walter goes on to point out that there is just a chance that, in the course of time, some of these vanishing species may learn to adapt themselves to the new conditions of things, and take a fresh lease of life. The tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris), a native of the Samoan or Navigator Islands, was supposed to be rapidly becoming extinct, as its terrestrial habits rendered it an easy prey to predatory animals, such as cats and rats, introduced into the islands from European vessels; but late accounts show that it has changed its habits, feeding or resting exclusively on large trees, and that it is now increasing in numbers. Commenting on this, Professor Newton says:

It is in this way, through the struggle for existence, that habits which have been transmitted from parent to offspring through unknown generations are suddenly abandoned, and entirely opposite ones adopted that give the needed protection to life and continued prosperity, which the inherited methods no longer are able to secure.

Now, singularly enough, the whitehead (Clitonyx albicapilla) was forty years ago the commonest bird in the North Island, and at that time a strict inhabitant of low scrubby vegetation, where its habits were gregarious. For many years it seemed to have become extinct, Mr. Reischek, during several years' hunting in the Auckland woods never having met with a single example. During the last few years it has reappeared, but in an entirely new character, as the frequenter of the highest tree-tops, and it appears to be sensibly increasing. On the Little Barrier, however, where it has never been much disturbed, it still continues to frequent the low vegetation.

If so marked a change is apparent on a large land surface like New Zealand, how much more rapid and effectual must be the change in small islands. There is an interesting example of this in the Hawaiian group. In 1890 a committee was appointed by the British Association to investigate the zoology of those islands. The committee secured the services of Mr. Pi. C. L. Perkins, who has proved himself to be a most efficient collector; his investigations prove that quite a noticeable decrease in the indigenous fauna is taking place each season. The district around Honolulu was perhaps originally the richest in endemic forms, but now introduced forms are in vast preponderance; the distinctive fauna of the plains, if there was one, has quite disappeared. Captain Cook found certain birds, for example, near the shore; of these, some are extinct, and others are to be found only in the mountains.