HIS VOICE AT NIGHT

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

HIS VOICE AT NIGHT

WHAT THE MOREPORK HAS TO SAY. By E. G. TURBOTT, B.Sc. n Nlv :lio«c who alwavs dwell in l! c heart of a city are unable to I ■r:11 • 1 111 ie r the voices of till' night "ii ill ir ea j1 i -1 eh ildliood. 11l . ■■ ' i'.-iv,-. when the world was a iJ' place, the "niorcpork" made ••i c- in the darkness which caused a..c (n ebb and flow. That sudden .a.-Ii •iiiraiu—ii.i- it a morepork? l in n the ten-e. -ih'iit wait, only fol,o*\ed by certainty that we heard an • ■vvl v\ hen lii- forceful "more pork" ill led the ~l illness. I|.» would go on i' paling the -nine Words at inter val- ,u- it he liked it; or perhaps fell -Ilciil. when we thought he w.i« mint ing. We -oiiiet lines almost forget that 1.11 l nmrepin Uis an owl. for we rarclv -ee 11i111. and just name him from hivoire. Hut he is just as good an owl lor story books as the birds of that name in Kngland. and he was certainly a character in many a Maori tale. In Maori this New Zealand owl is called ruru, but he did not suv mill, or koukoii. in one of the best known of Maori stories:—"ln the Maori fable of the Battle of tinBirds, in vvlii ii the sea birds fought the land birds tor their territory, the morepoi k. it is set forth, could not take part, as the battle was fought in the daytime, when mvl- cannot see. But, at the i |0,,- of the day. when the sea birds had been driven off and defeated. the owl vvaawarded the honourable position of herald, and added to the fears ol the enemy by joining in the pursuit with its insulting discordant note of ironical derision: 'Toa koc! Toa koe!' (Thou art brave! Thou art v ictur') " A cousin owl in Australia, very much like the morepork. is the boo book owl. It is just as easy, although not half as interesting, to imagine ours saving "boobook" as "morepork." There are probably lots of other versions of this peculiar cry. I uhall never forget the performance of niorepork.s about the house when L was on a visit to the farm mime years ago. They seemed to keep uj> a tremendous concert of "niorepcirks" until the morning, and then, to cap it all, as I was halfawake, I could hear one droning again and again, "more-pork-pork pork .. . . " until the last j>art finally trailed otf into nothing. • One owl came into the house at night, and we would see them at dusk, flying noiselessly across a small piece, of light flky between the trees.

I nlco-i they can find a very dink anil shady piece uf busli. morcporks -lay in hiding tluiiiicj the dav. They arc uncomfortable in bright light. and also. if tln*v show themselves, their lite may lie made very unpleasant by mobs ot small birds. In this matter, lmwever. they ran take all the revenue they need if one of the small I'inU shows itself in the dim lij»ht 'if evening.

On Hen Island reeentlv I eonld see that every article usually included in a niorcpork s diet was present in ••lunula lie". l'irstly, there were plenty of bush rats. K. ]•'. Stead - M es a note from his <liarv written <"■ the Hen. which reads!—" Under the roosting branch of a morepork which was beautifully sheltered by palm leaves. J found pellets composed entirely of rat fur." Thus, as

he says later, the rats ''form a delectable food supplv" for the owls This was liot all. for injects, ally vvetas. were numerous. The morepork is mainly an insect eater, and ibies good work in destroying harmful pests. Lastly, there were plenty of small birds and their eggs on the inland, of whirl) the owls, no doubt, eat a certain number. When a member of our partv on the Hen was climbing over some tree perching Astelias. a morepork Hew swiftly out of the clumps of foliage. We could «ee an opening into a hollow inside the tree trunk, and hoped that the bird had a nest there, although, at the time, we could not make certain. Nestlings would probably have been present, two or three wide-eyed youngsters with thick white down, fed on the same food as their parents were eating. GuthrieSmith. writing about a morepork's nest on Stewart Island, says: —

"Morning after morning we found in the nest sometimes one and sometimes two divinj* petrels. At first tlie parent hinU rend the flesh from the hones. and feed it to their brood, tint afterwards allow the chicks to help theuieelvea."'