NATURE STUDY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 22 November 1924, Page 12

NATURE STUDY.

NOTES AND COMMENTS,

(“Hori.”)

A Hawera resident recently’ secured n/S p"f ?pe f me " of a weevil beetle at. the Pokomoko Gorge; It resembles a miniature kiwi, having a lons nrouSV ik ?h the kiwi - identified by. the curator of the Wellington Museum, Mr. J. Allan Thomson, as be^ wL 1J i g - t0 t he - s P ecies Rhyncodes Saundeisi. In acknowledging the beetle, which was sent by the writer for the museum Mr. Thomson expresses his thanks for the fine insect. Though it is already represented in the collection of weevils in the museum he was very glad to have a duplicate.

The writer was informed bv a local resident that of late lie has seen living about his garden a peculiarly marked blackbird. It has a white ring around its neck and several white feathers in its wings.

The writer has on several occasions referred to the fact that owing to the depletion of the bush all over the island many birds and insects have disappeared from the district; Another interesting little creature that one never sees nowadays is the pretty little lizards that were to be found under dead logs in th,e bush or under stones. It was called the niokomoko, and varied in colour from pale or dark reddishbrown witli a whitish stripe, and dark stripe down the back. The writer-many years , ago caught quite d. number out at Normanby. It was a favourite pastime when a boy to catch these species of reptile, and sometimes when handled they would shed their tail. , I have on many occasions when in the bush in later years looked for these little fellows under logs, but have never since found any. They evidently have entirely disappeared from our midst. They - were quite harmless.

The Agricultural Department has refused to lift the protection from stoats and weasels, contending that any harm they may do. in killing a few birds is more than offset by the valuable work they do in assisting in keeping down the rabbits. A writer in the Christchurch Press stated recently that in January last, when on an expedition in the back country of Canterbury, he came upon a fair sized rabbit being dragged over a swampy piece of land by a weasel. The Tabbit was secured and formed a dinner for the man instead of the weasel. It was more or less open country, with but . few rabbits to be seen. A few weeks later, agaim in the daytime, the same writer came upon a similar scene in the Upper Kakatahi district, Hokitika, a place where rabbits are numerous. Doubtless this tackling of rabbits by weasels is a most common occurrence.

There is a wealth of bloom in the cabbage trees at the present time. This has been said to presage a dry summer, but the writer remembers one occasion on which the same thing happened and that year was the wettest experienced for many years..

There are many reports in the Manawatu district of the rapid increase of the hedgehog, and a corresponding disappearance of slugs and snails from the gardens. The domestic watch-dog, states the local paper, resents the intrusion and if loose will kill a fullgrown well-quilled animal, though often with painful results from the encounter. If on the chain the dogs bark furiously at these strangers. Apropos the subject of hedgehogs and their formidable armour of defence, a resident of Hawera informed the writer that he recently obtained two pairs of these little creatures for the purpose of combating the snail pest. Shortly after the hedgehogs in question- were liberated on a moonlight night the house cat suddenly espied one of them. Thinking probably it was a rat, the feline rushed after it at a rapid pace. The impact against the sharp quills of the hedgehog resulted in a veritable gymnastic, turn on pussy’s part. Shfe got the shock of her life, and, heedless to savj has come to the conclusion that, hedgehogs are creatures to be avoided in the future.

In the course of dismantling an old building in Kawliia a box of wax matches was found in the lining, evidently taken there by the rats many years ago (reports tiie Waipa Post). The box had been gnawed open and some of the matches had been chewed, others had ignited, but the majority were in a perfect state of preservation. The occurrence adds evidence to the popular belief in the incendiary rat, although the vestas had been there for fully a dozen years. :

A most remarkable flower is at present in the office of the secretary of the Southland League (Mr. J. S. Dick), states' the Southland Times. It has come all the way from West Australia, has not been in water since it was picked, and retains all the lifelike colouring of a growing plant. It is known in its native country as the everlasting flower, and is of a vivid yellow colour.

A Maori correspondent of the Mana-. watu Times says: “Hapuku, one of New Zealand’s best, esteemed fish, is persistently misnamed hapuka. The Maoris themselves initiated the error, and for a reason. Te Hapuku, a wellknown aiul much-respected chief in Hawke’s Bay and Manawatu, was deemed by his people: to haveXsuffered indignity each time his enemy fed upon his namesake. Hence the change in the final vowel. Significantly also the chief became known to his people as Te Ika (the fish), an appropriate compromise for his correct name, Te Hapuku, which fell into disuse for the reason given. The custom of hiding the bodies of the chiefs in a cave arises from the ever-present fear that their enemies may eat them and thus destroy their hope of Paradise. ”

Some of the blue.-gum trees in the Oamaru Gardens are over a hundred feet in height. They were planted about half a century ago (states the North Otago Times).

The fate which befel a black swan in the Queen’s Gardens, Nelson, has been satisfactorily explained away (says the Mail). It fell in honourable combat. The cause of death had been unjustly attributed to schoolboys; but the police inquiries have absolved these young innocents from participation in the final tragedy. At a meeting of the City Council the police made a full report on the matter. According to the story told to the constable responsible for the investigation, the caretaker observed the bird in an injured condition, and later found it had “ shuffled otf this mortal coil,” a subsequent post-

mortem disclosing a dislocated neck. Previously the black and white swans had been observed in combat, and the former, finding his retreat cut off, endeavoured to struggle through a barbed wire entanglement, but got hung up by the neck. The verdict of the caretaker was that the white swan had killed the black one.

A venturesome bather in the. Masterton Park lake found himself confronted by one-of the swans which (relates the Age) was harbouring a brood of five cygnets. Without warning the parent bird attacked the bather, who reached the bank, under pressure, a length ahead of the enraged guardian.

A belief, which seems as persistent to-day as when Hood wrote “The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies,’-’ is that parent birds will deliberately poison their captive young. 'A correspondent in the Morning Post practically begs the question by inquiring what, poison is used for the purpose, and he proceeds to write: “I have known, several cases. Recently a man took some young goldfinches out of a chestnut tree here and caged them. The old birds came and fed them. He put them in his cottage at night. and put them out at 5 a.m. This went on for over a week. Then one morning after the old ones had fed them they all died.” The reply is to the effect that though there have been many statements in Tegard to birds poisoning their young in similar circumstances, there does not appear to be a morsel of . scientific evidence in support of the theory. “It is difficult,” the writer remarks, ‘‘to imagine, -how circumstances- .would- arise in Nature that would lead to n development of such an instinct, and those birds which killed. their young would have no descendants to perpetuate their habit. ’ ’ If the owners of fledglings dying in suspicious circumstances would subject the victims to a postmortem, light might be shed upon the subject. It is difficult to conjecture what poison could be used for such a purpose, for young birds are fed mainly on insects, and the older ones delight in the so-called “poisonous” berries.

Remarkable evidence of the mother instinct in birds was illustrated in Waimate the other day (states an exchange). The offspring, of a starling had by some means or other become dislodged from their nest on the roof of the Waimate Hotel, and fallen between the wall and the lining, finally coming to rest and being made prisoners in the ventilator about a foot above the pavement. Throughout the day the mother was to be seen hovering roupd the aperture making frantic 'efforts to force some dainty morsels through to the hungry young captives.;

The swallows have gone, says,a Home paper, and we miss their flights around the old farm and over the roofs of the large barns to where the lane divides the fields. The rain has left pools along the. roadways, and the water in the ditches is nearly level with the banks. Dreary and soaking, the countryside lies under' late September skies, with the promise of more rain heavy in the west. But the robin cheerily sings. This red-breasted resident bird of ours takes little heed of wind or rain. The warblers have left the hedge lines and the fields, and little song sounds now from the tree-bordered lanes, so that the voice of the robin comes as a welcome break of melody. At times the thrush sings, but the robin is the more regular songster. Singing in'the morning, and again at; eventide, the redbreast does a little to break the silence of the fields and hedgerows when the finches are scattered and the. songs of the summer birds are no longer heard.