NATURE NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 112, 17 November 1928, Page 17

NATURE NOTES

BIRDS ON A RUN DISAPPEARANCE IN RECENT! TIMES (By 1.. H. D. Stidoiph,'l..A.O.U.) Several very interesting observation* aro made by Mr. 11. Guthrie Smith in the prcfaco to the second edition of bis charming book, "Birds of tho Water, Wood, and' Waste," which deals, with the bird-life on a sheep run, Tutira, Hawkcs Bay. . When the first edition was published in'l9lo quite a number of native birds, including some rar» species, were to be found on the land» of this sheep run, but unfortunately ia the sixteen years which lapsed before the second edition of the book was printed several of the birds had disappeared. One of the most interesting instances is the case of the mischievous but lovable weka or woodheh. Prior to the war the weka was common oh. Tutira, but previous to 1914 Mr. Guthrio Smith observes there were grounds for a belief that the weka or Tutira was being drawn away in a northerly migration. On his return after the war npt a single bird remained. Twice* since 1919 pair v s have' been liberated, but these have disappeared. The weka, however, is now plpntiful in Poverty Bay, where thirty years ago the species was unknown. Mr. Guthrie Smith hopes that some future migration may again include Tutira. During January of 1914, Mr. Guthrie Smith recalls, he encountered an extraordinary number of woodhens on the Te Anau-Milford track in Westland. Ho was* there again during the same month seven years' later, and then except for a pair or two of semi-domesticated, birds, not a y/eka was visible. At- the time .of writing these notes he added that, another weka migration was in progress along the east coast of the South Island, between Takaka and Collingwood.----i . Further interesting, movements are ■ recorded in the case of tho pukek.o. During 1912 or 1913 as many as seventy bt these birds could be counted in one lot and there were between three and four hundred pair on T.utira. At that :date, too, Mr. Guthrie Smith observes,-judg-ing by tho alacrity with which-.after any accident; pairs rebuilt and' laid fresh clutches, feed must have beea more than ample. During « the war the pukeho disappeared except for two or three brace, which remained near a • certain cottage. About the same time, however, the.pukeko had become very plentiful iv certain swamps thirty miles away from Tutira. Mr. Guthrie Smith feels confident that the birds. Wore not driven away by vermin, as since the. irruption- of weasels that passed up the East Coast and through Tutira in the early 'nineties, locally those small animals had .been almost unknown,, and there was. an enormous increase in- the number of blackbirds and thrushes, and somo native species. Mr. Guthrie Smith thinks that there must have been during 1914 a great increase ia the numbers of pukeko with a still further expansion in the two following years. By that date, he states, the birds had probably found', their breeding quarters be coming overcrowded and their feeding grounds fouled. Moreover the pukeko, once „well on the wing, flies high, and there would be no difficulty in accounting for tho suddenness of its disappearance from Tutira. '„ In the sixteen years between' the publication' of the two editions of this book the fern bird,' which was formerly .quite .numerous- on .Tutira," disappeared completely. ' The only possibility that . might account .for the fact is the flood of 1917, when, Mr. Guthrie Smith 'states, over twenty inches of rain fell without a pause during three days. The deluge was.accompanied by a bitter gale, and the flatjlands—the principal haunts of the fern bird —-were completely submerged at the time and-afterwards covered .with mud from six inches to three' feet deep. ' The fern birds of Tutira, he states, may \ have been drowned or pelted to death in the bitter blast of that great flood. Another species which has suffered is tho blue duck. Later than 1914 Mr. Guthrie Smith has not seen this duck on Tutira waters. Up to that date, he points out, the chief river, the Waikahau, ran from source to sea through six large sheep stations. Now it flows through three times that number of smaller holdings. . Mr. Guthrie Smith states that he imagines that tho food supply of the blue duck is still plentiful and trout- have not yet stocked the local streams in sufficient ■ numbers, to. do . harm. It is doubtful, ho states, if they ever will, as they aro drowned in. the yellow spates that, from timo to, time sweep clean the river beds... The blue duck, though shot off tho bigger ' rivers, he believes will still maintain. itself in the^ deep ravines of the central rum Yet another species on Tutira has disappeared—the brown duck. Mr. Guthrie Smith states, however, that although he -has not seen a specimen for years he is not prepared to say that it is altogether gone from Tutira, but ho has hot seen the footmarks in the drying mud of creeks and along the margins of summer-shrunken water-holes. "Noother duck," he states, "has been, so adversely affected. by the increase on a great scale of cattle. These iniquitous ■ beasts, now a necessary evil on. every sheep run, trample, in the banks of the slow-flowing shallow watercourses, peculiarly the. haunts-of the brown duck, their great marauding mout-hes break away the friendly shade of hedges, shrubs, and grass, they tread down the raupo beds growing tall and green from their irioist beds of sud and •mud. Cattle on Tutira have been fatal to the brown duck."'Two other species of ducks on Tutira are, however, apparently holding their own. Referring to the scaup: or black teal, Mr,' Guthrie Smith states that except for. the now regretted introduction of trout .into the lake, whereby tho food supply of he scaup may be diminished, he is not aware of reasons why this diving duck should not continue to thrive. Although the grey duck on Tutira barer ly holds its'own, as a New Zealand species it is safe.. This duck, he observes, is certainly a wilder bird than it was forty years ago.