IN TOUCH WITH NATURE. NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN NEW ZJ^ILAND.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 102, 1 May 1909, Page 13

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE. NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN NEW ZJ^ILAND.

(By James Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) (All Eights Reserved.) (Fop The Post.) Archdeacon Grace, writing from Blen-< heim in regard to Mr. C. W. .Adams's note on a Tasmanian cricket introduced into the Nelson district, says that ho knows the little creature well. When the Maoris first noted its appearance in the North Island, about the middle or end of the "fifties" of the nineteenth century, they called it "Pihareinga. " Archdeacon Grace remembers that, about fifty years ago, when he was a boy of nine, living with his parents at the Church Mission Station at Pukawa, Lake Taupo, much excitement and interest were created by the report that the insect had arrived. Maori travellers from Auckland and other seaports entertained their "country cousius" by telling fireside stories of the marvellous insect which made sweet music, but which remained quite invisible, and might be sought for in vain. The sound, they said, came first from one direction and then from the other, and they believed that it was entirely elusive and mysteri°u£- They therefore called the insect -finareinga," which may be translated as being something from Reinga, the uncanny nether regions of departed spirits. Mr. G. V. Hudson, of Karori, Wellington, states that the insect is Acheta fuliginosa, and that it may be identical with Gryllus servillai on Captain Hutton's list. Although eels have monopolised this C fi w? f or , five or six weeks, they are still the subject of a good deal of correspondence that reaches me. Mr. E. D. Hoben, editor of the Manawatu Daily limes, Palmerston North, writes : "I always read the weekly natural history notes, and thoroughly enjoy them, I have been especially interested in the eel controversy, and have been corresponding with Mr. R. C. Bruce regarding it. Have any of your readers heard of the curious fact that there are no eels in the waters on the western side of the dividing range in New South Wales, but plenty in the eastern waters, although the streams, in some cases start within practically a few yards of each other ?" Mr. T. Allan, of Avondale, Auckland Province, states that there are two creeks in his garden. They join, and flow into a mud flat. Large numbers of eels live in the creeks and also in the bog close by. Along the course of the smaller creek, there were some swamps or flats. Mr. Allan attempted to fill these up in order to get the water to run into only one channel. When digging the soil in the swamps he found countless numbers of small eels, which had been living in the place. Some tdmo ago Mr. C. W. Beebe, Curator of Ornithology at the Zoological Gardens in New York, sent me some very interesting information in regard to the colouration of the plumage of birds, obtained by some experiments, which he has carried on for years, and' which have attracted attention in all parts of the world. Letters on the habits of eels have prevented me from' publishing Mr. Beebe's remarks, but Dr. Fulton, of Dunedin, has brought the subject forward by pointing out that Mr. R. Lydekker, F.R.S., an eminent English naturalist, and the author of a large number of works on natural history, has tak^en Mr. Beebe's experiments as the basis of an interesting article in Science Progress. Dr. Fulton has given much thought to the strange diii'erences in the colouration of plumage in the North and South Islands of this Dominion, the South Island birds often being more richly coloured than their North Island congeners, and' he finds in Alessrs. Beeb© and Lydekker's publications a feasible explanation of the differences. The explanation is supplied by the fact that a humid climate induces darker 'colouration than, a dry one. Mr. Lydekker, in the article •in Science Progiess, says: — ''In regard to the experiments dealing with the effects of humidity, it is a well-known fact that many kinds of terrestrial vertebrates inhabiting warm moist districts display a much darker type of pigmentation than is the case with individuals of the same or kindred specaes dwelling^ in drier localities. Correlated) with thi|Vdarkening of the exterior is frequently* a difference in the matter of size, extending in some instances to the entire body, in other instances by the lengthening or shortening of tail and wing feathers 'in birds. When the dark numid forms are isolated by barriers of some description from their normal representatives they are invariably recognised by naturalists as distinct species, according to the degree of differentiation shown." Dr. Fulton says that the South Island is more humid than the North Island, and probably always has been so, and in past ages New Zealand's climate, though warmer than it is now, was Btill humid. In regard to the differences in size, also noted by Mr. Lydekker, Dr. Fulton, taking measurements given in the "Animals of N&w Zealand," finds that South Island birds, besides being darker in colour, are often larger and longer in the wing than those which live in the drisr climate in the North. The Notornis, which is a gigantic rail, is confined to thb West Coast Sounds district, the most humid part of the 'country. Thd ■wing of the North Island crow is cix inches long, of the South Island crow, 6.26in_; the North Island robin's wing is 3.7 in, the South Island robin's 4in ; the common fern-bird, which is found all over the main-land, has a measurement of 2.3dn, the tawny fern-bird, found only in the South Island and the Snares, and the Chatham Island fern-bird, 2.5 i n; the whitehead, of the North Mand, 2.Bin, and the yellowhead of the South Island, 3.2 i n; tha North Isdand toinitit, 2.7 in, the South Tsland tomtit, 2.9 in; the common grey warbler, of both islands, 2in ; the Chatham Mand warbler, 2.6 in. Dr. Fulton has not gone closely into the kiwi's measurements, but he points out tha* there is apparent evidence that the southern kiwis, on the whole, are larger than the northern, ones. The Chatham Island bell-bird is larger in all respects than the bell-bird of the. mainland. There are exceptions to the rule. The common native ground-lark, for instance, has a larger wing than the lark of the far south Antipodes lelands, but the latter has a notably reduced sternum, and is a poor flier. The wings of the robins on the Chatham I&lands and the Snares are smallefi instead of larger, than the wings of the robins on the mainland. Talcing all the evidence, Dr. Fxdton has come to the conclusion that Messrs. Beebe and Lvdekker have supplied a fairly clear explanation of a peculiarity in New Zealand's avifauna which, previously, was very puzzling. Mr. Beebe is still carrying on his experiments, and as he has offered rto communicate the results, further evidence may be supplied in regard to the brighter colours of New Zealand's southern birds. *

"Most of you," said a bishop recently to some ordination candidates, 'tyill do well to avoid action in the pulpit. I shall never forget," said he, "a raw-boned Irish curate I once had, with hands like legs of mutton. I can see him still preparing 1 for a grand peroration, and leaning over the pulpit with outstretched, despondent palms as ho esolaimed, Taws, me britluin,