Birdless Mangaia
p. 46 · Read in the full issue
From Our Own Correspondent
Mangaia, Dec. 1945.
ON Mangaia, Cl, are millions of rats, and a few wild-cats. As a result of the depredations of both, the bird population is so reduced as to be neg ligible.
It was not so once! Comparatively recent history that of the Days of Hayes (for bold “Bully” was no stranger to the island)—speaks of a “ngangaere” noisy with the varied calls and cooings of the feathered tribe, including wild doves (the “rupe,” now extinct) in flocks; cuckoos and even parrakeets (probably the petiotio of the Society Group), Now, save for the harsh twitter of wild linnets, and these infrequent, the Mangaia bush is eerily silent. This exter mination of Cl birdlife is regrettable. We have no Eastham Guild to re-stock for us our lost zoo of tropical birds.
It has not occurred to the powers-that be either to make a move in this direc tion.
The bush is quiet; for its choristers are of the past.