New Zealand Bird Notes, 3 (2), 57-64
Article Type: Paper
1. This paper summarises the past and present (1947 and early 1948) distribution of the myna (Acridotheres tristis).
2. It is the result of an investigation carried out amongst members of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand and others – in all 98 co-operators took part.
3. In the Wairarapa the myna is confined to five towns and is probably dying out, or at most, barely holding its own.
4. In Hawke’s Bay-East Cape the limits are from Dannevirke to the coast in the south to Te Araroa in the north. The population nowhere extends far inland into the hills and is more or less stable, being exceedingly numerous in parts.
5. In Manawatu-Taranaki the myna is not numerous south of Wanganui, though extending to Foxton. In small numbers up two inland watersheds, the northern limit is reached on the coast at Mt. Messenger. Numbers seem to be stabilised.
6. The aggressively expanding Waikato population is encroaching into the Auckland suburbs, and is bordered elsewhere at Tauranga, the Mamaku Bush, the Atiamuri Bush, Taumarunui and Awakino.
7. Mynas had disappeared completely from the South Island by the beginning of the present century.