Abstract
Wild Pigs and Wekas (Ocydromus).—Early in the spring of 1876 I spent several days in fern-collecting and botanising in the Malvern Hills district of Canterbury. Whilst so engaged, in many places I came across fresh pig-tracks and rootings, now and then sighting a boar. On one open hillside, bordered with fagus woods, I found three nests of that curious rail, the weka (Ocydromus); each of the nests contained eggs. It seemed remarkable that the nests should have remained unravaged by the wild pigs that were constantly roaming about the neighbourhood. It is highly improbable that the keen-scented swine were not aware of the weka's haunts. The trail of this bird is strong, readily followed by dogs; indeed, dogs take to this pursuit with so much of pleasure and relish that many good sheep-dogs become unreliable and almost worthless when they enter upon weka-nunting. It is a well-known fact that wekas usually abound in districts infested with wild pigs; they probably find their advantage in feeding on the varied forms of insect life disclosed in the soil upturned by the swine in rooting up ferns, spear-grass, &c.
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POTTS, T. Notes from New Zealand . Nature 21, 192–193 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/021192c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/021192c0