Publications Archive

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.

Special Number: Bird Life on the Snares, by Edgar F. Stead

1. The evidence comes from (a) the works of Sir Walter Buller; (b) six skins in the Auckland Museum; (c) recent observations.

2. Records for the west coast of Auckland and the Bay of Plenty near Whakatane go back into the nineteenth century.

3. The earliest date is March 10 and the latest November 17.

4. The majority of birds are juveniles, some of which may summer north of the breeding grounds.

5. There is evidence that black-fronted terns used to nest in the North Island; and there may still be isolated pairs or small colonies breeding in suitable country.

6. The suggestion is made that the black-fronted tern is a subspecies of the whiskered tern (C. hybrida).