WAYS OF THE WILD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 83, 8 April 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAYS OF THE WILD.

. TROPICAL BIRDS. THE WHITE, OB lONG TERN. (By A. T. PYCROFT.) The -white tern is one of the tropical noddies. Ornithologists know it as Gygis alba. Captain McComish informs me that it is known as the fairy tern in Papeete. New Zealand's smallest tern, Sterna nereis, whose total length is 9in, is also knows as the fairy tern. The white tern is the most delicately beautiful of all sea birds, its ethereal grace delighting those mortals who have been favoured by seeing it. At Papeete it may be seen flying over the trees in the streets and in the gardens, occasionally settling for a few minutes. This beautiful little tern—its total length is only 12in—is found in tropical oceans. Its nearest breeding place to New Zealand is the Kermadec Islands, GOO miles northeast from here, and Norfolk Island, the same distance north-west from this country. M. J. Nicoll, author of "Three Voyages of a Naturalist," first saw this bird at Fernando de Noronha, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, off Brazil. Nicoll considers that the white tern is the most beautiful of all the sea birds and remarks that many of these tern.s were seen in the various islands visited, and whether hovering over the deep blue sea. of the South Pacific or sailing round the palms of a coral island in the Indian Ocean, they were equally at home. Wherever they were seen the snow-white of their plumage and the deep, dark iblue of their eyes made them ever memorable. At South Trinidad Island, off the coast of Brazil, Nicoll, when landing, was mobbed by a screaming crown of white terns and noddies, which rose from their nesting places on the rocks. So close to him did these 'birds, fly, that he was able to touch them with the barrel of his gun. The writer saw white terns at Sunday Island and R. S. Bell, formerly of Sun day Island, has published an account of the remarkable breeding habits of tlii? species there. White terns begin to arrive at the island usually about tlie first week in September, but they are most irregular in their time of arrival and date of laying. For instance, a halffledged young one was found on November 29, 1908, while during the same season the last new-laid egg was found on January 10 of the following year. The terns are found in small colonies or in single pairs, here and there along the east, south and south-west coasts of the island. The birds arrive generally in very small numbers at a time, though large flocks, apparently just arrived, have sometimes been seen. They settle almost at once on the trees in which they eventually breed. These trees they apparently occupy during the period of their stay, whether they breed or not. They always perch in them during the heat of the day, and roost in them by night.

JBreedjng Habits—No .Nest Mfde. White egg only, always at Sunday. Island on a pohutukawa tree, and as far from the ground as possible. Sometimes, they lay on the high lateral branches of a large, upright tree, when two or three birds with eggs, may be seen close together, but on different branches, for they are not very sociable birds, but generally they are found singly, near the tops of long, thin, leaning trees, especially those leaning over a° steep hillside or deep gully fully exposed to the wind. It is, in fact, on such trees that about three-fourths of the birds lay. They make no nest of any kind, but lay their egg on the bare stem or branch, wherever there is a, little flat place or any inequality that will keep the egg from rolling off. They nearly always lay on the main stev.i of the leaning trees, and rarely where it is less than 4in or sin in diameter, though on three or four occasions an e;rs has been seen on a thinner stem. T T u; usual place for birds to lay on is a damaged place on the stem of a tree. These damaged places have the appearance of being caused by stones falling from the cliffs above. In time these stricken places become surrounded by a slightly raised ring of young wood or bark, so that the whole looks not unlike a miniature volcanic crater or a small funnel-shaped pit, with usually, though not always, a slightly raised rim. Somewhat similar places may Informed by dead branches dropping off, leaving a socket. Such places are very common on pohutukawa trees, and &ra the chosen laying places of about fourfifths of the white terns at Sunday Island. It is interesting to watch th» birds at their nesting sites. They stand on the edge of the selected place and work round sideways, advancing the right foot first and scratching at the edge of the pit with the left. When they have worked round live or six times they stop, take a step or two backwards, and carefully examine what they have done, picking up with their bills any bits of loose bark they may have scratched off and cast them away.

Expert Fishers. When the creamy white egg, which is marked with light and dark brown blotches, is hatched, one of the parent birds, probably the male, stays by the young for a week or ten days, apparently never leaving it for a moment, while the other brings minute fish and feeds the young one. The little fish are held crosswise, placed head to tail in the bird's bill. Rarely fewer than two fish are brought at once, but sometimes as many as four. The bird must, therefore, hold one fish in its bill while catching another. The young cling to the bark of their home-branch most tenaciously if any attempt is made to handle them. Indeed, if they get a good grip with both feet, it is well nigh impossible to pull them away without dislocating their legs, for their feet are armed each with three large hooked claws. These grip the wood at the three points of a triangle, so that the more they are pulled the tighter they hold. The young bird grows very quickly, and soon becomes feathered, but a remarkable point about them is that they can fly while they are largely covered with down, and long before the pinion feathers are full grown. As soon as they are fully feathered they go out fishing with their parents during the davtime, but always return to ™*® ir birthplace at night. In Papeete the white terns lay their single egg on the leaves of a palm, and on Pitcairn Island they nest in the coconut palms. On South Trinidad Island these birds ne.-t on the decaying trunks of dead tree fcrn«.