NATURE NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 85, 10 April 1926, Page 13

NATURE NOTES

FAILURE OF FOREST

BERRIES

MANY PIGEONS PERISH

(By B. If. D. Stidolph, E.A.0.1T.)

Occasionally the fruiting season for many of the New Zealand forest trees is a failure, and at these times of famine birds dependent on the berries suffer severely. At other times, wttii * bountiful Jiarvest, the birds enjoy a lugcipus feast, and multiply. In the last number of the State Forest "Newsletter," Mr. E. H. Murray records a famine in the Waipoua State Forest, North Auckland. . He writes as fdl» lows: "The failure of the taraire, hi« nau, and nikau berries this season in the Waipoua State Forest has been the cause of a very severe famine among the native pigeons. Dead birds have been quite a common sight in the bush, and it has been nothing unusual to handle birds sitting in the undergrowth that were evidently too weak to fly. In some cases these birds appear to have recovered, but it is quite certain that many hundreds of bird' must nave perished during the months I November, December, and January." ;

Nearly fifty years ago the late SI? Walter Buller regretted to note how very scarce thig fine pigeon a becoming in all the settled districts. In 1880 he found it extremely abundant in the Forty-mile Bush, stretching from Mastorton to Wobdville. In his diary for April of that year he Wrote:— The pigeon is now feeding on koroi, tha small red berry of the kahik:tea, ;ich is exceptionally abundant this year, the trees by the roadside as we p' *aed through the Forty-mile Bush having • russet hue from the abundance of th« ripe fruit. The-miro berry comes in next month, and, the whanake ea.'.y in 'June. The pate :is now in fruit, the long spikes or drupes of berries hanging in conspicuous'clusters along the edge o the forest. This, too, is a favourite food of the pigeon at this season. The houhou, which has # clusters of black berries, like tho English elder-bush, contributes likewise Jo' the bountiful' bill

cf fare; so also does tire karaniu, and - much larger kind of \,oprosma, called rrurekau by the Natives, producing V brighter-red berry, and. now in full bearing. The tui and the kaka also regale themselves at this season on these sweet berries." i The time Sir Walter Buller has described was ev',lently V good fruiting season^ and consequently pigeons were numerous. ■ A ride through that district this April,-however, would disclose a few charred stumps and logs —all that remains of tho former Fortymile Bush. The pigeon has disappeared with the destruction of the bush.

Mr. Elsdon B-^t, in one of his published articles, gave an interesting account of the Maori method of snaring r.nd killing the pigeon. 'Vine kererjf, or pigoon, was taken by the spear, noose snares, and tutu. The long bird-. spear was used to spear them during the period of January, when.the birds were very fat. During this time the birds are assembled on the hill-growing rata anC. are busy extracting, the honey from the rata blossom. Snares for this bird were either placed on the trees or sot around'a waku or waituhi. Tho naka-keleru: is. a. wooden about four '/feet Jong.•■'' It is, e.iith'er fixed up on posts set up at the feeding ground* or uecurcd to the branches; of a tree, and sometimes, in the case of a leaning tree, such as tho rata, it is secured to the sloping trunk of such tree. It is then filled with water. The bird* become very thirsty when feeding, especially when on the toromiro, and soon discover the supply of water placed so conveniently for them. When the pigeomi have- become accustomed to drinking from'this trough, the same is set with snares. The takeke, or cord to which the noose snares are attached, is stretched along both sides of the trough and about eight inches above it, being secured and kept in position by the tekatekal and arorangi. To the ttkeke are- attached the snares,- right along both sides of the trough. When n- pigeyi alights upon tho edge of the trough it thrusts its head throngh one of the snares fwhich are set closely) in order to reach the water, and is thus Aught. Should there be a spring of water near the feeding grow"', it is set round with snares in the same manner. In the case 6f a small scream, the water is covered over with branches or frouds of ferns, leaving a few open spaces of water, which toe set with snares. "Waituhi'* is a tern.applied. to-pools of water which collect in natural hollows of trees'and rocks. Whe'a frequented by pigeons they also are surrounded by snares.": ..,- ■

A recent reference, by Mr. Beek,-of the Whitney Expedition, to skua gulls killing' large numbers of sea bird* on the sub-Antarctic islands of New Zenland, has brought forth a note from a Wellington correspondent, who writes: " Mr. Beck's reference to skua gulls' it somewhat, misleading. The skua gull is a sea vulture, a scavenger. It feeds on offal, etc., and any young penguins or eggs momentarily left unguarded. The skua is no match for a full-grown '. penguin, and well he knows it, being careful to elude any parent bird's attack. The skua has even been noted as robbing *s neig'lbour skua's egg. It will fiercely feint an attM k on an V adult bird, which promptly disgorges: its food in readiness to repel the »t-_.« tack. This food is promptly secured, by the attacker. To conclude that the *■ skua* had killed so many penguins by counting the number of skeletons is akir to judging that half a down vultures feeding on a dead ho- ie had kill-. Ed the horse. Mr. Beck seems to have been hasty in his observations on these birds." In " The Animal* of New Zea-l-.nd" the birct is thus summarised: > "Although this bird is often seen at sea, out of sight of land, it rarely settles on the water, and, when it doos • so, it holds op its wings as if it was afraid of wetting them, it does not skim over the way>r_as the petrels do,' but flies low, with a heavy slow flapping of its roundish wings, and is ; therefore, easily jecognised. Its natural food is young and sick birds, which ~ it kills without remorse, although it is no fighter, but a great coward."