WAYS OF THE WILD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAYS OF THE WILD.

THE PARADISE DUCK. MALE AND FEMALE PLUMAGE, (By A. T. PYCROFT.} Mr. M. Coombe, of Makauri, Poverty Bay, writes as follows:—"I understand that the Paradise duck is a rare bird in the Poverty Bay district. At present there are a pair of them here. I remember when I was living near Picton some years ago there were a large number of them and 110 one interfered with them." Mr. Coombe wishes to know which of the birds, the duck or the drake, has the bright plumage. The drake's plumage is more colourful. The head and upper neck is black with bluish green reflections. The under part of the neck and upper breast is dark brown, minutely freckled with pale rufous. The back, scapulars, lower breast and tho sides of the body are black, mottled and marked with white wavy lines. Tho wing coverts are white, the first feathers are black and the secondaries green on exposed webs forming a bright speculum, dusky and margined with white on the inner webs. The abdomen is dark brown spotted and barred with black. The under surface of tho wings is white. In the female the head and upper part of the neck are white. The under part of the neck, back, scapulars, breast and abdomen are chestnut, waved and freckled, with black and white lines. The remainder of the plumage is similar to the male's. The Paradise duck is restricted in its distribution in the North Island, and has only once been seen north of Auckland. It is now found from Lake Rotomahana and Hawke's Bay southwards, but only in certain localities. It was formerly abundant throughout the South Island, hut is now restricted owing to the advance of settlement. It is found at Stewart Island and Sir George Grey transferred some to his island home, Kawau, but they are not found there now. It was formerly fairly plentiful in Canterbury. Potts records that during a nine days' shoot in the 'eighties, 21li ducks, comprising live species, were obtained and 25 were Paradise ducks.

A Fresh Water And A Coastal Species. At certain seasons of the year Paradise ducks associate in large flocks which migrate from one part of the country to another, resorting at one time to the river mouths and salt marshes near the sea coast and at another retiring to the grassy plains and lagoons of the interior. In winter a partial separation of the sexes appears to take place. It was, Buller states, a common thing to see a flock of ten or more drakes to one duck and vice versa. At other times they wander about' in pairs and whether reposing on the water or feeding on the shore their strongly contrasted colours cannot fail to arrest and please the eye. In districts where it has been much molested it becomes exceedingly sliy. Various sites are selected by the Paradise duck for its nest. Usually it is placed on the ground well hidden beneath a tussock or in a hole in a rock and near water. Sometimes, however, it is built in a tree, 15 or 20 feet from the ground, and it has been found on mountain faces far from water. The nest is . built of grass and lined with down which the female plucks from her own body. Two broods are often reared. Both birds share the work of incubation and when tlio ducklings are hatched they are led almost immediately to the water. The young are at first fed by the parents on insects or crustacea, but they soon learn to eat herbage themselves. The adults subsist to a great extent on tender grasses and other succulent herbage. During the moulting season it, like other native species, is unable to fly and advantage is then taken by the Maoris to kill large numbers for food. It is easily domesticated, even when taken as an adult. It requires, however, constant access to a stream or pond of water for if denied this privilege it becomes subjcct to attacks of cramp, which in the end prove fatal. The old birds show great ingenuity in decoying intruders away from the nest or young, the favourite ruses being pretended lameness or inability to rise from the ground. It is,' says Travel's, exceedingly amusing to see an old duck waddling away as if with the greatest difficulty, her wings drooping and flapped occasionally to assist her apparently struggling efforts to escape, while all the time she manages to keep in advance of even a fleet clog until at last, having drawn to what she considers a safe distance from her nest, she at once vises from the ground screaming out her harsh danger signal to the complete discomfiture of the panting dog. Upon the danger signal being uttered by the parent birds, the young ones usually make at once for the nearest running water, down which they float close to the bank seeking cover.

Homing Instinct. It has been recorded by Bullcr that a domesticated Paradise duck, at a sheep station 21 miles from Timaru, was taken by its owner 120 miles, its wings being previously clipped. By and by the duck disappeared from its new home and was looked upon as lost. Later its mistress returned to her previous home, and to her intense surprise found that the duck had visited its old haunts and was settled on a pond as before. It could not fly, so that it must have walked 120 miles, threading its way by many cross roads, over bridges and across streams, through country which presents great variety of contour in hill, valley and river. A Mr. Shalders, writing to the North Otago "Times" some years ago states that while travelling with another man up country with a wagon and team, he saw on a stream two parent Paradise ducks and eight or nine young ones. On his essaying to capture some of these the parent birds endeavoured by feigning lameness to decoy him from their young, but he captured three of them and placed them in a small box on the wagon. They proceeded a distance of six miles and camped for the night. The next morning he saw not far from the wagon a Paradise duck and drake, and remarked to his mate that he believed the birds had followed them. To ascertain if this were so he took the little ducklings out and placed them on the ground some short distance from the wagon. They were almost immediately taken charge of by the drake," who made off with them in the direction of the river, rising every few yards in order, apparently, to let his companion see the course he was taking. Mr. Shalders had not the heart to retake the ducklings, and let them go as a tribute to the faithful care of the parent birds.