WAYS OF THE WILD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 50, 28 February 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAYS OF THE WILD.

A NATURALIST'S NOTEBOOK.

NOTES QN SOME BIRDS.

(By A. T. PYCROFT.)

Master H. H. Metcalfc, of St. Helier's, sends me the following account of his personal observations on birds. "Last week when I was gardening I was attracted by a queer noise, which 1 thought was made by a young bird. It took me quite a time to find at, and when I did so, I saw what I thought was a young thrush. I tried to catch it but found that it could fly, so I traced it. to the next tree, which was about twelve

yards away. There I waited and pre sently saw a goldfinch feeding the young bird on cicadas. It is an interesting sight to see a fully-grown bird feeding a young bird which can also fly 5 but tin ore so when the bird is a different kind. This week I saw the same birds, only the young one could fly ' P rO P®J. J> but was still being led by the c,old finch."

, The immature bird which my yoiing friend saw was no doubt the shining cuckoo. A later description of the on ci feeding it, given to me by this young naturalist, confirms his former opinion that the bird was a goldfinch, and as the goldfinch was seen feeding the oird. at an interval of several days, it eug-jo-ests that the goldfinch is the foster 'parent a.nd not an instance of a bird jministering to an unfortunate fledgling which by its plaintive piping showed u<ms of hunger. These young cuckoos aave an insatiable appetite. I have seen two grey warblers busy all day bringing food to their foster-child, which was always asking for more. It has not ?onie under my own observation that the Goldfinch's nest has been selected by the Cuckoo. It has been recorded in Australia that it is no uncommon sight _ lo ;ee the smaller Australian birds feeding :lie young of the cuckoo, liiven a- little jird which is seldom, if ever, the fosterparent of the pallid cuckoo, has been known to join in supplying the wants of the young cuckoo, which maintains a | lontinual peevish' cry, stopping only while feeding is going on, or when the 'appetite is fully appeased. Dr. Fulton jstates that of the New Zealand birds [the bell bird, tui, warbler, tomtit, robin, brown creeper, bush canary, blight bird, |and the house sparrow, are all known to ! feed the cuckoo bantlings, not because they are purely duped, but very often, from a philornithie spirit. Study of Ornithology. ; My young correspondent has commenced observing birds at an early age. He will find the study of ornithology, that is the natural history of birds, a fascinating one. It will train him to observe those apparently little matters which will build up a knowledge of many of nature's ways. E. M. Nicholson, in a little book "The Study of Birds," has written a chapter on "How to Observe,' 5 which should be studied by all bird lovers. Nicholson states that one cannot observe without a theory, and ' what seems the simplest of ornithological tasks, to go out of doors and look out for something worth recording, is in reality one of the hardest. Many people can collect 'birds, skin them, photograph them, draw them, or describe their plumages with considerable efficiency, but real observers are very few, and there never has been an observer yet who was'not very .limited, and obtuse compared with what he might have been. Every day a great many ordinary people without any interest in birds are present, when things take place which some ornithologists would give a great deal to watch, but these people not only fail to record what they see, they fail even to see it, because there is no place in their minds for it to lit .in.

There is no truth whatever in the easy and- fatal belief' that ornithology is almost worked out. That belief h; . persisted a long time. It is amusing to lind an author of 1784,' in-what wc should call the dark ages of ornithology, apologising for his work on the eamc ground, and merely venturing to hope tliat, everything of importance being already known, he had presented the subject in rather a better arrangement than his forerunners. Ornithology as a matter of fact has hardly begun. The delusion that nothing remains to be discovered is the inevitable result of the false, and perverted view of ornithology which was long current, and lingers even now. Subjects for Observation. It is desirable for the field ornithologists to pursue some fairly definite course. For example, there are at present hardly any satisfactory data on the subject of competition. In almost every country there are instances of species either closely related, or of similar range and diet, which seem likely to be rivals for food supplies or nesting sites. There are also many cases of commenealism to be studied. Coinmensalism implies species living together and gaining something by it, for one party, or perhaps both, without developing any sort of parasitical arrangement. A case, in point is the habit of the Northern phalarope of nesting close to ptarmigans so that the Arctic skuas are driven away by the ptarmigans from the vicinity of their nests and also unknowingly protect the sitting plialaropes which would otherwise be destroyed.

Again many birds outside the breeding season resort to roosts a long way from their foraging areas. This is true, for instance, of many aquatic birds, and of such a widely distributed passerine species as the starling. A'though a certain number of roosts have been observed much more will have to be done in the way of tracing out fly-lines and mapping them locally in detail before it is possible to say with any confidence what the factors are which govern the choice of roostingt-plaees, from what distances their inhabitants are drawn, and what advantages a single great central dormitory has over the habit of roosting dispersed near the feeding ground.

Gregariousness, where it occurs freely, is always an interesting subject for study. The mknner in which flocks come together, whether by the fusion of family parties after the breeding season or by the clubbing together of bachelors or birds whose mates are sitting, or by the aggregation of newly-fledged young simultaneously deserting their parents to form bands exclusively of the one year, or by the fortuitous concourse of all generations ami sexes, deserves to be attended to in detail. Some flocks are freshly formed each day, and recruits can be watched joining the original members at intervals until it snowballs lip to its full size. r I lie loestl distribution of many species ami the "homing instinct" are also interesting subjects.