NATURE—AND MAN

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12528, 13 April 1935, Page 12

NATURE—AND MAN

LESSONS IN BIRD LIFE. “SHOO” THE ZOO. (Edited By Leo Fanning.) A weliknown. lover -of birds, Mr 11. Guthrie-Smith, has placed on. permanent record his many observations of the habits of numerous species, particularly during the nesting period. Here is one of his chronicles, Dom “Mutton Birds and Other Birds (seen in and about Stewart Island) “The female tit is much, more cautious in approaching the nest than the male, who will have led the chicks, regardless of man’s presence, for an hour perhaps. before the hen can make up her mind to follow his example. “One particularly careful hen, I remember, which, although fluttering up and down and round about, with provender in her bill, could not make, her mind actually before me, to alight on her nest. This precaution was taken on her nestling's, account, not on her own, for often she herself had been very near fo me and to. my camera. Although she must have noticed her mate bringing in supplies, she trusted him and no doubt believed that in. .some way I was hoodwinked by his manoeuvres, and that the secret of the chicks was not in any way betrayed. The sexes are different only in their estimate of the quality of my- intelligence, the cocjc who the chicks thinking I was a bigger fool than I looked, and the hen. who abstained, believing T looked a bigger fool than I was. “Perhaps it is not easy to fully appreciate the anguish of the mother, voluntarily debarred by love of the chicks, from love's first charge,' the ministerinf to their needs ; and I have sometimes thought it may have been this extremity of tenderness and pain, that wrung her from the little stuttering song, the first singing I had ever heand from a demale tit of either breed. She sang, and once again sang, as she passed over them, as if imploring pardon for apparent coldness and neglect, and entreating their love and forgiveness

NATURAL ’HOMES—NOT PRISONS

One of New Zealand's leading na-ture-lovers has put in a protest against the placing of nativo birds in avaries, in or out of zoos. ‘‘Perhaps the mnsf, attractive and most humane method of exhibiting birds is to establish sanctuaries with lakes and ponds and plantations of native trees close t-o the centres of population at tourist resorts and spas’’, he writes. “At Rotorua native wild fowl are to he seen on the ponds in the gardens. But more needs to be done there in the way of planting trees on which the lioney-eating and berry-eating birds exist. Native trees, and some of the Australian gums, alone should he planted. The pinus insignia plantations are only a cumbering of the ground in a New „Zealan.d park; they provide no food for the birds. sTore sanctuaries, largo and small, but no imprisonment of the birds. They- should he free to come and go, free as the wind. If they were given the food supplies they need, and if their ground and treeprowling enemies were exterminated, they would reward their friends with their tameness and confidence. That would be far bettor than fenced and ca ged avi ari es. ” WISE CONSERVATION. In pleasant contrast with the recent agitation for the draining of Washdyke Lagoon—fhe haunt of many water fowl, a few miles from Timaru —come reports of progress with a new conservation policy in United States of America. “The heritage of the birds is to be given back to them,” states one commentator. “Seventeen great areas once bri gkt with the plumage of the multitudinous flocks and loud with their conversation—areas that wcr o mistakably drained in so-called development pr«~ jeets—are to be flooded again. -.This policy should prove to be more than a reprieve. Its soundness and magnanimity- should he made permanent, lake a rescue in melodrama, it comes in the hazardous nick of time. Though it,s clemency am] justice are for all migratory waterfowl, it will concern —because of their superior mw-Hers and greater variety—the wild ducksi”

This policy will also be “good business” irom the so-called “practical man's” viewpoint. It was found that the draining of some large areas of swamp and lagoon reduced the moisture level of the soil adjacent farming country and thus 'Seriously lessened the productivity of much of the land.

EMILY A inti VAT, OF WHITE-EYES. This autumn white-eyes are .fossicking for grubs and blights in gardens of Kelburn, Wellington, a month earlier than usual. In previous years they have not flown in before the beginning of April, but this year they began their insect-hunting at the end of February. Why? The probable reason is that those birds are the broods of the past nesting season, with their parents. During the past two years—particularly since last whiter-—numbers of these lovable little birds have chosen to make their homes in and about Kelburn where trees have supplied suitable eh el ter and food. Similarly boll-birds and tuns have responded to man's planting activities in various districts Of Hew Zealand. WHITE-EYES’ WIDEI RANGE. The white-eye, which cam© to New Zealand from Australia about eight years ago, is one of .the most widely distributed birds of the Southern Hemisphere. Even on lonely isles of the stormy southern ocean it makes a living. On bleak Campbell . Island this friendly little chap greets the stranger. As far back as 188 S Andreas Eieisohek saw white-eyes on that lonely outlier of New Zealand. “The only land bird I came across was the blight-bind (white-eye) which is common everywhere," he wrote in his “Yesterdays in Maoriiand.” “When the Austrian frigate Saida was nearly 500 miles from Auckland Isles (which are abemt 164 miles from

Campbell Island) a swarm. »of these little birds came on board. A friend of mine, Flag-Lieutenant. Bitter von Wolf, wrote to tell me they were sitting in the rigging and that several were, caught." A CASE OF CO-OPERATION, A note By Mr Guthrie-Smith: —• '‘Friendly relations exist between, the fisher folk of the island (in a of Stewart Island) and .the gull for some kinds help him to locate shoals of cod, whilst other's devour the entrails, flung overboard, of the cleaned fish. Soon there were three or four mollyhawks about the boat, dose together, and often within twentyfour inches of our hands. • Amongst these birds there was no bickering? somehow the wtos °° n " veyed that the were too 'big for the indignities of crowding and jostling. Ifc was delightful to see them, grave and sedate, watching steadfastly, although without undue elation or eagerness, for the ‘Chinaman,' or ‘kelp fish,’ their by right - and custom S 3 the birds well knew. Whenever one of these were hauled up. the "birds would glide eagerly .forward, the propulsion raising on their breaists » little' wall of water. A blue cod’s cap* ture left them - unmoved; with egbal surety they knew - that was 'fbcj man’s share of the, catch.”