NATURE—AND MAN.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LVI, Issue 5989, 27 April 1935, Page 4

NATURE—AND MAN.

LESSONS IN BIRD LIFE. fiSHHOO" THE ZOiO, (Edited by Leo. Fanning)/ . A well-knoWn lo\ver of birds, Mr H. 'Guthrie-Smith, hais placed on perr | m'anent record bis tnatny observations of the hoibitsi of numerous species, particularly during the nesting period. Here! is one of his chronilides, 'friom Birds and! Other i Birds" (seen in amd! 'about Stewart Island)': — "The female! (tit is much more cautious in approaching the nest 'than the nialEe, wiho will have fed the chicks, regardless oif iman's presence 1 , for an hour perhaps, before the hen ■can make up her mindi to follow hii's example. "One particularly careful! hen I remember, which, although fluttering up and down amd! rouind! about, with provender in her bill, could not make up her mind! 'actually before me, to alight on her nest. This precaution was taken on her nestling's account, not ion iher owin, for often, she herself ihad been very near to me ancl 1 t'o my camera. Although she must have noticed her mate bringing 1 in supplies., she trusted! him, and! no doubt believed! 'that ini .some way I w!as hoodJ-wiinikedl by his manoeuvres, and that 'the selcret of the chicks 'was mot /ita. any way betrayed. The sexes differed only ini their estimate off the quality olf my .intelligence, the cock who fed the chicks thinking I was a ibiggen fool 1 than J Hooked, and the ihen, (who abs'tadned, believing I looked -a bigger fool than I was."

it is l not easy to fully appreciate -the anguish oif the mother, .vo'ltuntariily debarred l by love of the chicks from love's first ■ charge, the ministering to 'their needs; and I halve sometimes thought it may have 'been 'this extremity of tenderness and' pain, that wrung from her the littles stuttering .song, the first sing-

ing I had ever heard from a female tit of either breed. She sang, and once again samg, as she passed over them, as if imploring pardon, for apparent coldness and neglect, and entreating their love and forgiveness." ■NATURAL OOIMiEIS—JNiOT PRISONS. One of New: Zealand's! leading nature-liovers has put in a protest against the placing of native birds iin aviaries, ini or out of zoos. "Perhaps the most attractive and most humane method of exhibiting some oif the native .birds is to establish sanctuaries' with lakes and ponds ■and plantations of native trees close to the centres of population -and' at tourist resorts 'and spas," he writes. "At iß'Otorua (native wild fowl are to ibe seen on the poinds an the gardens. IBut more needs to ibe done there in! •the 'way of planting trees on which I the honey-eating and berry-eating j birds exist. Native trees, and some of the Australian] gums, alone should' ibe planted. The pi-nius msignis plantations are only a 'cumbering of the ground in ai (New Zealtad! park; they provide mo food) for the birds'. 'More sanctuaries', Targe and small, but no imprisonment of the birds. They should be Ifrea toi come and go, a® (free ias the wind. If they were given the food suppliesi they need, and then their ground 1 and tree.proiwling enemies were exterminated', •they would reward' their friends with their tameness andj confidence. That Would be far better than fences and cagedl aviaries. ,, (WfflSIE iQOINSiEfIRiVAfIUjOiNi In pleasant contraist with the recent agitation , for the draining of Washdyke Lagoon)-—the haunt of many waterifo'wl, -a few miles ifrom Tiimaru—comei reports of progress 'with ai new 'Conservation policy in •the United States of. America. "The heritage of the birds is to ibe given back to them," states one commentator. "Seventeen great areas once 'bright with the plumage of the multitudinous flocks and! loud' with their comversationf—'areais that were mistakenly drained 1 iin .so-called development ?«o>:ts—are to be flooded again.- This policy should, prove to be more than reprieve. '-Its soundness and magnanimity should be made per manent. L'ke a rescue in melodrama it comes in the hazardous nick of time. Though its clemency and justice are for all migratory waterfowl, it twill! concern—because off their superior numbers and greater variety--the wild ducks."

This policy will] also be "good business" from the ®oi-caMed! practical mam's" viewpoint It was .found that •the draining of some. large areas of Swamp and) lagoon reduced the moist ure level of the soil' in adjacent farm ing country and thus seriously lessen ed the productivity of much of the land.

EARILY ARRIVAL PF iWHUTBEYES,

This autumn 'white-eyes are fossioking for grubs aimdl bliights in gardens ,olf 'Kellburn, Welling ten, a month earlier than usual. In previous years they have root flown in before the beginning olf April, but this year they fa eg an their insect-hunting at the end of February. -Why? The probable reason is that those birds are the broods of the past nesting season, with their parents. 'During the past two years'—particularly since last winter—numbers of these lovable birds have chosen to make their homes in and -about Kel'burn where trees have supplied suitable shelter and food. (Similarly bell-bird's 'and tuis have responded to man's planting in various districts of New Zealand.

MIMYEIS TOE KIAINiGE,-

®bei white-aye, which caime -to New Zealand! from (Australia about eighty year© ago, q's one of the most widely distributed' birds of the Southern Hemisphere l . Even on lonely isles of •the stormy southern ocean it makes a living 1 . iO'n bleak Campbell 'Inland

/this friendly littl-e greets the ■stranger. As Jar back as 1888 Andreas Reischek saw white-eyes' on that lonely outlier of Nelw Zealand.

"The only Hand faiird I came across j'was the bl/ig'hit-flbilr.dJ (whi'te-eye) which iis -common everywhere," hei wrote in, his "Yesterdays in iMaoriland. s '' "When the Austrian frigate iSaidla was nearly 500 mi'tesi from Auckland Is'les i(wiucii .are about 164 miles> from 1 Pam*p , he'll) 'a swarm of these little birds | cams oni hoard. iA! friend of mine, jiFlag-iLieutenant Hitter void Wolf, , wrote to Mil me they were sitting in the rigging and that several were caught," iA iCAISIE iOfißl IOOMQPERIATIOjSTi A Bote fey Mr Guthrie4Smi | th "Friendly relations exist between the fisher (folk of the island (iim a ibay oif iSteWart Island!) and the gull tribe for some kinds help him to locate .the shoal's of cod, whilst other's devour tihe entrails, flung overboard, of the -cleaned fish. Soon, 'there were three or four mollyhawks aibout the boat, close together, and often) within twenty four inches: or less of our hamdis 1 . Amongst these birds tiher© | was rao bickering; somehow the impression) was conveyed that thiey were too big for the indigimtie'S of crowding jostling. It rwas del'ightlful to see them, grave and sedate, watching steadfastly, although without undue elation or eagerness, for the 'Chinaman.' or 'kelp fish/ theirs by night •and custom' a® the birds well ikinow. Whenever one of these was hauled -up, the birds would glide eagerly for ward, tlhe propulsion raising cm their breasts a 'M'ttlte Wall of waterw A 1 blue cod's 'Capture left l them unmoved 1 ; with equal surety they Sinew that was the man's ©hare of the catch,'*