A minor matter from a Cook’s

company file

By W. G. Coppell

Be it Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Rarotonga, Tahiti, or many another fair land there is one bird which if vilified and hated for its aggressive behaviour and its predatory habits the mynah bird.

Now how came this feathered monster to establish itself in so many places? It seems, for instance, that they were first introduced into New Zealand by acclimatisation societies and that views of their merits have changed with the passing of time. The New Zealand ornithologist W. R. Oliver said “the mynah ranks with the starling in usefulness, as it is largely an insectivorous feeder frequenting cultivations. Like the starling, too. it is liable to attack fruit and grain".

In the 1907 correspondence of the Cook Islands Trading Com pany is an account of how the mynah came to be introduced into Rarotonga. It seems that the company had been making inquiries about the bird, which was established by then on Tahiti as a means of controlling insect pests in the coconut palms.

In March, 1906. H. Meuel, of Papeete wrote of” Indian Minahs: I don’t know under that name. If you mean the Merles de Molusques they can be procured here at some expense and it will take some time.

The price offered by others is four francs per pair male and female young birds. The birds are imported here to help in the destruction of wasps but it is also found in practice they also feed with preference on native fruits, such as bananas. They multiply pretty fast here”.

The following month, the supplier undertook to send 12 to 15 pairs but had to admit in May that he had not yet obtained any birds— ”they are more difficult to get than I had imagined .

Progress must have been made because on 22 June, CITCO was informed that “A Rarotonga native called Pokoroa is in charge of the birds and has promised to look after them • V he acquits himself of this to y° ur satisfaction I think he is

entitled to some little gratuity from you”.

We all have our own opinions of the worth of mynah birds how muchwere they worthin June 1906?

“ The birds also go this time. I hope they will arrive in good order, enclosed invoice of cash for same £4.11.1”. This charge, presumably was for upwards of 30 birds.

The first consignment must have met with success for on September 14 that year Meuel wrote. ”1 don’t think it will be very difficult to get 50 more of these birds. Let me know what time you want them and I will get them. They are expensive to keep caged up .

There must have been a further shipment, but perhaps the price did not hold its level, for the return of imports into the Cook Islands for 1906 shows that birds to the total value of £6 came into the Cook Islands from Tahiti, But. given the rate of infation and given the great numbers of those damned birds on Rarotonga, if only they could now be exported at the same relative going rate!