WAYS OF THE WELD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAYS OF THE WELD.

THE POOR KNIGHTS ISLANDS. A NATURALIST'S PARADISE. (By A. W. B- POWELL.) After a hundred yea re of colonisation it is still possible to find a few isolated spots that have escaped the inevitable changes accompanying the industrial development of our country. One such location, where time a» it were hae stood still since the days of Cook, is the tiny group of inlets, which for some obscure reason he named the Poor Knights. Situated some sixteen miles off the eastern coast of Xorth Auckland, opposite AVliangaruru, this inaccessible but fascinating group of islets offers to thi naturalist a veritable treasure of plant and animal life. Here, among luxuriant vegetation and fascinating crags of pinkish-white rocks, are to be found Xew Zealand's living fossil the tuatara, giant wetas with bodies over three inches in length, two species of large land snails of similar size, and many smaller endemic species. One of the most spectacular recent discoveries at the islands was made as late as 1!>2.», when Dr. W. R. B. Oliver, Mr. H. Hamilton, and Mr. W. M. Fraser located a handsome new pl-.nt resembling flax, but bearing a striking coral-red bottle-brin-h flower. So closely does the foliage of this rare plant resemble the common flax that previous investigators had parsed it by as such. Dr. Oliver named this plant rarityXeronema callistemon. and he points out that it is only the second known species of its genus, the other being restricted to the mountains of Xew Caledonia. » Evidence of Land Link. Xeronema forms large tussocks five to six feet in diameter, and they seem to prefer the tops and precipitous sides of the higher crags, a station which has helped to delay the- true identification of the species, for at a distance the clumps are strongly suggestive of the common flax. The occurrences of these two species of Xeronema at such remote localities as Xew Caledonia and the Poor Knights Islands hel|is. to strengthen the accepted hypothesis that these two localities have been connected during a former land extension of the Xorth Auckland Peninsula. Other lines of evidence are furnished by the kauri, karaka. puka. and the land snail, Placostylus. all of which have close relatives in Xew Caledonia. Dr. Oliver also records Cook's scurvygrass, Lepidiuin oleraceum, a plant which has been almost exterminated on tfie mainland by sheep and cattle. This plant was apparently once very common on the mainland, as Captain Cook collected boat-loads of it for use as an antiscorbutic by the crew. Of greatest interest is the occurrence of our wonder reptile, the tuatara, the only living representative of a primitive group which became extinct elsewhere over 200,000,000 years ago. Consider the thrill of seeing in the flesh tlii-s aristocratic survivor from the distant geological past. An Interesting Partnership. An interesting partnership exi-ts between the tuatara and several species of burrowing petrels. The burrows are occupied jointly by the ]>etrels and tuataras ill the summer, and by the tuat;:ra only in the winter. During the day both sleep, but at night the tuatara goes forth 011 his nocturnal quest for in>ect<. One magnificent specimen of a tuatara which I saw on the occasion of my visit to the northern island of the Poor Knights, in February. 1934. was a beautiful greyish green flecked with small s[>ots of paler green. Time seems nothing to the tuatara, for his life span probably reaches several hundreds of years. Xo wonder that he can afford to stay motionless for hours at a stretch. He knows that it is the pace that kills, and conserves his energy accordingly. However, should occasion warrant activity the tuatara is capable of it, and he becomes a swift and elusive quarry. Everyone knows the repulsive-looking native insects known by the Maori name of weta; they are wingless relatives of the introduced crickets. The common mainland wetas. however, are outclassed by the Poor Knights specie#, which has a fat body over 3in in length, and when the spiny hind legs and long antennae ',are taken into account are almost a • foot in length. These dangerous-look- - ing but actually harmless insects may ' be seen perched motionless on branches of tea-tree or moving spasmodically among the masses of decaying leaves on the ground. Last Stronghold of Flax-snaiL

These leaves when scratched aside reveal th" presence of large numbers of the flax-snail. Plac >stylus liongii, a. species which although "once common on the northern mainland now has its last remaining stronghold at the Poor Knight*. A curious point about the I'liicostvlits snail at tl.e Poor Knights is that it is identical with the species once common along the eastern side of the North Auckland peninsula, yet those from other outlying islands, the Three Kings and tape Maria van Diemen, differ from the mainland forms. It is possible that the Maori people were responsible for introducing mainland Placostylus to the Poor Knights. This surmise is strengthened by a curious tendency to a colour deficiency in the aperture of these snails, which so far has been seen only in examples from Whanjraruru and the Poor Knights Islands. It is also significant that the Maori people '»ho formerly occupied the Poor Knights were Wliangaruru natives. Conversely a much smaller flattened snail about one inch across. Khytid.l pycrofti. peculiar to the Poor Knights, has a close relative at the Heti Island and both are quite divergent from the North Auckland mainland species. The Poor Kn : ghts Islands are noted also for being the only recorded breeding place of a rare sea bird. Buller's siieerwater, Puffinus Bulleri. Mr. -R. A. Falla made this discovery In 15)34 when he located these birds nesting in burrows on the steep eastern faces of the island*. He found that the birds arrive from the end of August and throughout September, prepare, their burrows in Oct"!.*-,- ;jnd November and lay their white > crgs in the first week of Dec-ember. By the end of March the young are fl?dgi'd and desert the nests. Land birds are represented by brilliantly plumaged parrakcets and the bellbiid. whose melodious song is always the most attractive feature these undisturbed island sanctuaries.