THE FRIENDLY FANTAIL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 305, 14 May 1941, Page 3

THE FRIENDLY FANTAIL

ZANE GREY'S ADMIRATION The native forests and birds of New Zealand charmed Zane Grey, whose impressions; of them were brightly given in his book, "New Zealand, the Angler's El Dorado." "I liked especially the fanitails, he wrote. "What delicate birds! I often watched the fantails. On one occasion two gave me a pretty exhibition of their feeding. It was early in the morning and I was back in tha woods just at the edge of an open place. I stood motionless. Tliesc birds flew down and perched on- a snag above me. Then one darted cut, fluttered and whirled, and returned to his perch. The other made nearly the same manoeuvre. I saw the insect in the air. A fantail would flutter out a fe;\v feet— snip—then back to his perch; Finally I saw one actually catch an insect, but if I watch the birds I could not detect their prey. It was only by looking up at' the sky and locating a tinj' gnat or moth that I could see the actual tragedjv Snip! What vicious little bills, considering their size! The noise was a a hard to hear as the bills were to see. "I was about to make my presence' known when both took after the same: insect, quite a large flu!tering creature. The birds actually met in mid-air in collision. That seemed to anger them and one flew after the other, uttering fierce little notes/They darted within a foot of my face, and all around over my head; and finally the pursuit took them off into the woods." The friendly lovable fantail has a deadlj r enemy, the German Owl, which hunts in the small birds' farourite haunts, towards dusk or even during daylight, especially in misty weather —a form of attack to which fantails, grey warblers, and whiteeyes fall easy victims as they are not equipped to combat the savage aggressors.