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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 2 (May 1, 1936)

The Life of the Lagoons

The Life of the Lagoons.

The disappearance of a species of bird-life from a country is a calamity, and if it is hastened by man's acts it becomes a crime. That is what has befallen the huia. Now the same fate will overtake the pukeko if the acclimatisation societies and a section of the farmers and so-called sportsmen have their way. Protection has been removed from the handsome and harmless swamp-turkey at the request of the societies, or some of them, and unless the Forest and Bird Protection Society succeeds in its efforts to save the bird, there will be a massacre of a helpless bird this coming season.

This agitation in some quarters for the destruction of the pukeko is based on ignorance of the bird's habits and its place in the economy of nature in New Zealand. The farmer who sees a pukeko pulling a few straws out of his stack of oats may conclude that the bird is a “menace” (favourite word of the acclimatisation people) to the agricultural interests, and he may demand its extermination. What he does not know about the pukeko is the real cause of his objection. He forgets also that the draining of the swamps and lagoons to provide cow-pasture necessarily drives the pukeko to the farm for some of its food.