WAYS OF THE WILD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 249, 21 October 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAYS OF THE WILD.

THE WHIMBREL BABE NEW ZEAIAOTJ VISITOR. (By A. T. PYCROFTJ During a recent visit to Mokohinau and Cuvier Islands by Mr. Falla, of the Auckland Museum, and myself, we -were told by Mr. Roberts, the principal light-house-keeper, of a strange bird then at Mokohinau. From the first description we were inclined to believe that the lighthouse-keeper was correct in. calling the bird a rail, the description agreeing somewhat with that of the banded rail, but the statement that the bird was a powerful flyer, and that the beak was four inches long and curved downward, did not agree with any native bird. We were not fortunate enough to see the bird, although we were told it frequented the cow paddock and was often seen quite near the cow byre. After leaving Mokohinau our next destination was Cuvier Island, where we stayed for a few hours. We were told by Charles Hannah, the young soil of the light-house-keeper, that he had recently fed a strange bird which had since died. I suggested that the bird should be disinterred. This was done and its identity established by Mr. Falla as the whimbrel, a bird which breeds in Northern and Arctic Europe. Oliver states that so far only seven specimens of this bird have been recorded in New Zealand. They have all been recorded from the South Island, except one shot by Oliver at the Kermadecs in 1908. Ornithologists, that is those who study birds, know the whimbrel as Numenius phaeopus, and Oliver states that it is a eub-species, N.P. variegatus, that visits New Zealand. It breeds in Eastern Siberia, as far west as the Lena and Lake Baikal, and winters in our summer in Australia and Tasmania. It is also a visitor to Lord Howe and Norfolk Island. Mr. Falla suggested that the bird described to us by Mr. Roberts, of Mokohinau, was also a whimbrel, and there is now little doubt that this is the case. Both birds probably made land at the same time, the dates practically coincide, and at both islands we were told that the birds were first seen after heavy easterly weather.

Only Occasional Visitors. Whimbrels, like curlews, are onlyoccasional visitors to New Zealand. The whimbrel is a smaller bird than the curlew, measuring only 16 to 18 inches with, a relatively shorter beak, which curves downwards. It may be distinguished by its dark brown plumage variegated with white margin and notches. The sides of the neck, foreneck and breast are whitish streaked with brown. The chin and throat are white and the abdomen is also white. All the members of the genus are of very similar habits, frequenting moors, inland marshes, and uplands during summer. Even more wary than oyster catchers, whimbrels and curlews take wing at the least alarm, and rarely allow themselves to be approached within gunshot. Whenever alarmed they utter their well known piercing cry as they rise in the air, and these weird.notes, especially when a flock of birds join in the chorus, may be heard at great distances. Gregarious in winter, the birds break up into pairs in the spring, and in the breeding season lay in a slight nest on the ground four somewhat pear-shaped eggs, of which the ground colour is olive green, marked with spots of brown and grey. In summer their food consists of insects, larvae and worms, sometimes supplemented by berries. In winter it is largely composed of small marine crustaceans and molluscs. Although generally so shy and wary, in the breeding season they are far bolder, and when the young are hatched both parent birds will often fly anxiously round and round the head of any intruder on their domain.

The Curlew. A distinct East Siberian form of the curlew is not unknown in New Zealand, several examples having been secured. This bird breeds in Eastern Siberia as far west as Southern Baikal and the upper Olekina, and south of 57 degrees north latitude, and migrating from there as far south as Australia and Tasmania, where it arrives from September to December. Most depart again in May and June, but many remain throughout the year. The nesting sea- . son in Eastern Siberia is June. This bird is easily recognised by its size, 25£ ! inches in length. The bill is recurved, and measures 7J inches. This bird can be easily distinguished from the godwit, whose bill is slightly up-curved. Whimbrels, curlews and godwits belong to the order Charadriiformes, or waders, of which there are five sub-orders. New Zealand is represented by the pied and black oyster catcher. The name oyster 1 catcher is a misnomer, but their long wedge-shaped bill does enable them to I open mussels, although their principal l food is worms and crustaclans. It was j long a puzzle liow the oyster catcher ' opened the eliells of the mussels, which in some countries form its main diet, but it appears that the great majority lof the molluscs are opened from the ' dorsal border, when the .valves are i gaping, by the bird thrusting its beak ' into the aperture and then using it as a lever, at the same time severing the adductor muscles. About 9 per cent of , the mussels are opened on the ventral : border where the aperture for the byssus, a tuft of long, tough filaments by which they attach themselves to rocks or other substances, renders them as vulnerable when the valves are closed as- when open. The plovers are also included in the order Charadriiformes, and New Zealand possesses the wrybill plover, with a laterally twisted bill, which always turns to the right. Potts, author of "Out in the Open," writing of this bird, 6tates: The flexibility of the upper mandible, derived from the long grooves and flattened form, tends to assist the bird in fitting its curved bill close to a stone, and thus aids it in searching or fossicking around or beneath the shingle for it 3 food, while at the same'time the closed mandibles would form a tube through which water and insects could be drawn up as water is sucked up by a syringe. ' As the flexure of the bill is lateral, the bird is enabled to follow up retreating j insects by making the circuit of a stone with far greater ease than if it had been furnished with the straight beak of the plover. Dottrels, stilts, plovers, avoceta and knots are some of the other members of the wader family which are represented in New Zealand.