THE TRACK OF THE WILL WATCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE TRACK OF THE WILL WATCH.

XII.—THE BIRDS ON TARANGA. By E. G. TURBOTT. THE sadifteback is the chief attraction of Taranga Island, the Hen. Tlie bird must have wonderful qualities to hold this position, for in all other ways Taranga, which we visited on Monday, February 20, 1934, is a fascinating place. Of all the New Zealand sanctuaries it has probably changed least. A jagged

outline of rock exactly like the volcanic material forming: the nearby Manaia Range of the mainland; mossy stones under the trees ready to shift as you walk, having been disturbed by nothing clumsier than n fantail's foot for centuries—these are things that one remembers about Hen Island. It is a place of bird song. After the day's exploration I had of birds alone a list including sea birds such as the pied shag, the red-billed gull and the gannet and. a number of native birds of the land. These I met in the following order: The bellbird and the tui, the New Zealand

pigeon, tlie kingfisher, the North Island saddleback, the pied fantail, the red fronted parrakeet, the grey warbler and the silvereye, the longtailed cuckoo, a blackbird (introduced), the brown kaka. the harrier (hawki and the small white-breasted tit. There wore also evidences of the occurrence, for nesting purposes, of grey-faced and Pycroft's petrels and of the little blue penguin. The Saddleback. The personality of the saddleback dominates the whole community. As there is only a short' space left for the description of the Will Watch's cruise, I must keep most of our discoveries on the Hen for comparison in future notes, and mention here more fully but briefly this bird, the unique tieke. *"Tieke" is the Maori representation of the saddleback's common call, a ringing clarion note. "These are not silent woods," I wrote in my

notes, comparing the volume of bird music with that of bush well known to me on the nearby Whangarei mainland. They are woods continuously full of voices during the day— bellbird, tui, parakeet and summersinging cicada; but above all others is a striking note like this: "Keep-ep-ep-ep-ep." That is the call of the rare starling of New Zealand. Actually the saddleback, whose behaviour I had many chances of watching on the Hen, is not placed in the family Sturnidae (starlings). Rather, with another remarkable New Zealand bird, it forms a family apart but closely related.