NATURE STUDY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 January 1925, Page 16

NATURE STUDY.

(“Hori.”) [“Hori” will be pleased to hear from lovers of nature whenever they nu.o liitei-osting G'oseiyaticns t > itcord of habits or peculiarities iu the plant or animal kingdoms, getters should be addressed care of the Star Office.]

NOTES AND COMMENTS. Reference was made in these columns some weeks ago to the fact that a local resident had the unusual experience of a blackbird building its nest on top of , the cow bail where he milked his cow every day. Unfortunately, someone interfered with the nest before the bird was able to hatch out the eggs. Whenever the owner of the cow let the animal out of the bail he had to shift the piece of board on which the nest rested each time. The same resident informed the writer that a thrush has taken a fancy for the self-same cow bail as a nesting home, and has at present a brood of three young ones almost fully fledged. The nest is not in the same position as the blackbird’s was situated, but so low down that a person may place his hand in the nest quite easily. As has been noted by the writer previously, both the thrush and the blackbird build in very queer places sometimes, but both have a penchant for building in boxthorn hedges and rose bushes. They must realise that these prickly situations offer a good deal of security from their enemies.

Our Whareroa correspondent writes: The extent to which the ferret and stoat pest is overrunning this district was indicated lately, when a local lad lost half a dozen nearly full-grown ducklings one morning, and surprised the stoat in the act of dragging the mother bird through the netting. Luckily this marauder was caught the following day in a gin trap. The idea that these vermin only suck the warm blood of their victims is erroneous, for the other day I surprised one in the act of tugging away at the flesh of a dead calf. Soon it will be practically impossible to rear poultry in this district, unless strong steps are taken by the Acclimatisation Society and private individuals to eliminate these scourges of the feathered tribe.

A correspondent writes: As something of a stranger to Taranaki, I was interested to read the other day your notes on the bird life to be found in the mountain bush. Perhaps you could tell me whether ,the New Zealand'robin is still to be found in these parts; or was he ever found here? It is not so many years since I was a bare-footed boy on the edge of the Southland bush, where the dainty little robin made friends with everyone. Now he seems to have vanished completely, thanks, the bush settlers say, to the stoats and weasels which have overrun the countryside. Six weeks ago I was on the way down to the Franz Josef Glacier, in South Westland, and got into conversation . with the driver of a char-a-banc which runs from Hokitika. I asked after my old friend the robin, but he had never heard of the bird. Later I took' my query to Mr Peter Graham, head guide at the Waiho Gorge Hotel. “All gone!” he replied in a breaking voice. “All gone!”

Mr Graham is a lover of native birds, but too often it is a sad story he has to tell of their passing. Someone mentioned the absence of the prying weka, or Maori hen, whose insatiable curiosity is the constant wonder of picnic parties at Stewart Island: The guide reported that, little more than a dozen rears ago, the Waiho Flat was like a fowl run with wekas. But not now. We were pleased,- however, to find the native pigeon, often flying from branch to branch along the track just ahead of us. The pigeons/ unconcern at the approach of humans was a high tribute to the vigilance of the Graham brothers in seeing that they are not molested, and their beautiful condition tpld its own tale of the thousands of acres of bush as yet untouched by either fire or saw. May that state of affairs long ontinue. From the door of the hotel the ring of the bell-bird’s note could be heard at almost any hour of the day; and often the last sound at night was the mournful cry of the morepork.

To those who go any distance up the glacier, however, the bird that .captures the fancy is the kea, mention of whose name is sufficient to rouse to

vituperation half the runholders on the eastern slopes of the Southern Alps. About half * way up the Franz Josef is the Defiance Hut, from which a start is made to climb Mt. von Moltke (7000 odd feet), a vantage point which, on a clear day, gives a magnificent panoramic view of snow-clad oeak6. There is no need for alarm clocks at Defiance. Punctually at half-past four in the morning the keas open the barrage. There were six on the bushes just outside the door of the hut, making the morning hideous with their screeching call. The birds are about the size of a parrakeet, with plumage of a dull green, shading away almost to thrushcoloured brown on the breast. But when they take flight the feathers beneath the wings show up in brilliant splashes of orange and rusty red.

Incidentally, the kea is quite as inquisitive as the tveka. We were warned not to leave the door of the hut open overnight unless we wanted to lose something, and as soon as vie opened up in the morning we found that the warning had not been without cause. The door had barely swung back when one chap hopped down from his ijerch in a nearbv shrub, walked over* the step, jumped on to the end of a form, and cocked his head over on one side as if to say, “Well, what abo.it it ?” Later we found the marks of keas’ beaks in the putty round every pane of the windows, as well as a corner of the step which they had tried to eat away in an attempt to get under the door. For the first feu thousand feet of our early morning climb there were keas always about; and when we halted well above the snowline to boil .the billy one came on his own to investigate things ._ In his murderously hooked beak he picked up a pannikin that lay on a rock by a haversack and tossed it contemptuously aside • then he made a valiant attempt to walk off with a lady’s alpenstock; and when one of us was stalking him with a camera seized the opportunity to poke into the emnty case, doubtless to see if there were any spare films Ivina- about. .At this point the Primus name to the boil, and the whole party, Mr Kea and all, fell to on the rations. When tossed a crust of bread he would lift it in his claw in true parrot frshion, take a bite, and stand there on one leg while he munched at it.

Of the charges made against the kea bv the eastern sheenmen I am not qualified to speak; hut Mr Graham is one of those" who maintain that the bird does not attack live sheep. 'Having met the kea on the unsettled side of the mountains, all I can say is that I hope he is innocent. He is sucn a charming little fellow that it seems a

shame to hear of him being slaughtered at the rate of 8000 a year. Our native birds are disappearing fast enough, without the Government putting a price on .their heads—or tneir beaks I believe it is in the case of the keas.

Those who have been motoring through the country to the East Coast say that they have been astonished at the number of pukeko which were seen near some of the smaller lakes and swamps which they have passed. Near Napier in some of the low-lying damp lands the whole place seemed to be simply swarming with the birds, and there were evidences that many of the birds had only- been hatched this season. For a long time it was thought that this bird was dying out, and had quite disappeared from its usual haunts, but there is now evidence that the bird is not to become extinct, but is increasing in numbers. Years ago the beautiful little lake called Tutira was simply haunted with pukeko, and the shores of the lake seemed to be a prolific feeding ground for the birds, but they seem to have entirely disappeared from there, • and like the old gold diggers they have probably worked the place out as a food resort, and it is not now a payable proposition when food is so plentiful near so many ~f the other lakes and swamps, and thus they have migrated to more congenial spots. ' .

An interesting discovery was made by Mr George Provan, of Naseby, when on Mount Buster (reports the Naseby correspondent of the. Otago Daily Times). This was the finding of a hedgehog lolled in a tussock of snow grass, and the spot where the little animal was found is approximately 4000 feet above sea level. Miners working in the vicinity state that they have never seen a hedgehog at such an altitude —in fact, that none has been seen in this locality previously. They are curious to know when the animal arrived, as if it migrated from the lower region's on the Kurow or Otemata side it would of necessity have to cross a number of creeks. Shepherds who have recently been mustering have scoured the district, and they assert that they have seen no traces of others, and the animal appears to be an isolated specimen. In view of the frequent assertion that such animals cannot exist at a high altitude, some curiosity has been aroused as to how it came to reach such a height, where the locality is free from snow for only about three months in the year.