In Touch With Nature

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 211, 20 August 1927, Page 5

In Touch With Nature

(By

J. DRUMMOND F.L.S., F.Z.S.)

A SWEET MELODIST

A note sent from Waiuku, fortyfour miles south-west or Auckland City, by Mr. A. King, on August 3, brings to mind a little New Zealand bird whose modest dress and manneis rob it of much of the attention it deserves. “You may be interested to learn,’’ Mr. King wrote, “that the nroriro has been abqnt here for tne past five weeks, and, in the early morning, regularly, may be heard in particular trees near this townslpp.’’ With a greyish-olive mantle on back and shoulders, grey on the throat and breast, and white, tinged with yellow, lower down, the grey warblet is not noticed as often as it is heard. For weeks, its trill, sweet, clear, and distinct, but subdued, plaintive but merry, has been uttered in every part of New Zealand, from hedges, forest trees, and shrubs, in fields, river-beds, and even city and suburban streets. The songster may sit on a fence close tip to a bedroom window m the residential area of a city, and sing in the early morning, the notes falling on the ears 'Of a person awaking from slumber. They often are the first sounds heard in the day by bushmen and prospectors who live in huts or tents tar from civilisation. People who pass along country roads hear the notes again and again, and stop to listen and to catch a glimpse of the songster.

SONG UNMISTAKABLE. No other bird, probably, has a song like the grey warbler's. ts effort is distinctly avian in charav..'’, but utterly unlike the far-famed songs ot the song-thrush and the blackbird, tor instance, or the chimes ot the tui and the bellbird. The grey warbler has many themes. The character ot the song changes, but always the song i s unmistakable, whether the notes are whispered softly, or are trilled in a crisp, detached staccato. MORE TRILL THAN WARBLE. In spite of the grey warbler's popular name, its song is more a trill than a warlke. The tones are smoothly gliding. They are utterly devoid of shrillness. They quaver slightly, but, usually, are not very flexible, although a great deal of variation, by close attention, has been noted in individual songsters; and the song is not a song; it is a soft sweet flow of melodious sounds, a melody, in fact. There is no comparison between the grey warbler s performance and the performances of the song-thrush and the skylark, to select the greatest songsters in New Zealand, simply because there is no basis on which to compare them. Sir Walter Buller associated the trill with the hum of bees amongst flowers, and the stridulation of the cicada in the sunshine. Few birdnotes are imitaped more easily by whistling. The grey warbler, perhaps, accepts this as the sincerest form of flattery. It responds by coming closer. The rapid twirling of a leaf, representing the flitter of a captive bird, will bring a grey warbler to the open hand., A strange feature of the song—or melodv—is, occasionally, a sharp and abrupt termination when it is half-way through, as if the songster—or melodist—had been singing to itself, and, suddenly becoming r*are of the presence ot a listener, was overtaken by shyness, and did not complete the theme. A WILLING FOSTER-MOTHER. The plauitiveness of the grey warbler’s notes suggests a somewhal melancholy disposition. The truth is, it is one of the most cheerful and lively of New Zealand’s native birds. It has a friendly outlook on the world, does not shun human beings and their manifold activities, and seems to be well disposed to all other creatures. This may account for iti willingness to take up the burden of toster-parentage to young cuckoos. More eggs of New Zealand’s two cuckoos are found in grey warblers' nests than in the nests of any othe’ species. I’eople who have seen greywarblers feeding young cuckoos are amazed at the foster-parents’ solid tude for the greedy, voracious and clamorous aliens that usurpingly occup the little birds’ nests. In the grey warbler’s bearing there is genuine and deep anxiety to meet all the young cuckoos' exacting demands, an anxiety which, strangely, has not been noted in the greywarblers’ attitude to their own young. ITS NEST AND EGGS. Grey warblers' nests are sent, m by correspondents lau-iy often. j, n some, there' are white, Iragile eggs, usually suffused with a pinkish tinge, sometimes spotted with red, and occasionally pure white. They are uainty jewels, a pleasure to see and to handle. In a few cases the grey warblers’ eggs had disappeared from the nests, in their place there were the much larger, uniform, brownisholive egg ot a shining cuckoo or a long-tailed cuckoo. The nest almost always is pensile. Its roof, a tapering point, is hung by strong fiores to a branch or a twig.. If the nest proves to be somewhat unsteady, Stays or guys are placed from it to other supports on the tree or shrub. Two builders, watched by Mr. Johannes Andersen, began at the top and worked downward. As the pear shaped dwelling progressed and began to swell out, w-ork was done under neath. as well as at the sides. The builders seemed to work upside down as easily as in any other attitude. When only the lining had to be done both of them approached, the maie with a feather. The female followed him w-ith ruffled feathers and shivering wings. They approached leisurely, settling, twittering, hopping a short distance, flying a few inches evidently in exuberance. The whole extetnor may be covered from top to bottom with the green nests of a particular and very common spider. Epeira verrucosa. A nest has been found gailv decorateu with long, dry leaves of the red gum, which hung to the sides like streamers. Moss, wool and down, bound compactly by cobweb. are used, and feathers, string and cotton may be woven in. BUSY BUILDERS.

Soft feathers seem to lie the favourite material for the thick lining. The small entrance is at the

side, and often this is surmounted uy a narrow porch, which helps to keep out the rain. Two broods are reared each season. Five eggs were taken from a nest on November 29 one year. On December 1, the owners began to build again. In sunshine, ram and snow, tlhe work went on. The nest was completed on December 5; the first egg was laid on December 8, the second on December 11, the third on December 12. the fourth on December 13. and the female then began to sit. In this case, the male did most of the work in collecting the material for the nest, but, by tho division of labour, tne female did most of the work in weaving the materials together and in building the nest. The bottom of the chamber is about two inches below the entrance. A grey warbler’s nest is one of the warmest, the most comfortable, and the cosiest cradles in the world. The cuckoos are extraordinarily callous in shunting their voung on to other birds, but tnere la evidence of good judgment tn their selecting grey warblers’ nests as homes for young cuckoos, and in appointing grey warblers the fosterparents. ITS MAORI NAME. Mr. King gives the grey warbler's Maori name, riroriro. This is only one of about twelve names used by/ the Maori for their little friend and companion. Their ancient savings show the affection with whichi they regard it. They now look to more reliable weather prophets, students of meteorology; but in ancient days they foretold the weather by the position in which a grey warbler placed its nest. The entrance, it was reasoned, would be on the side, opposite to the direction of the winds that would prevail. A nest hung high predicted a calm season; a nest hung low. m a sheltered position, a rough season. A lazy, shiftless person, who was destitute of cultivated food, and who begged lor some, was put to shame with the saying, “Where were you when the riroriro sang?” “The riroriro cries” meant that the time for the planting of the kumara had come, and that agricultural operations should begin. “Riroriro” means "gone” or “depart.” It does not seem to have anv particular application to the grey warbler, unless it originated in the legend of Hautupatu, who lived at Horohoro. Rotorua district, and who was carried to the forests by an ogress. She was a kindly ogress. She treated him well, and provided him with the best food, hut, he tiring of the confinenient. escaped. A grey warbler, one of her pets, flew to her with the news: “Our property has escaped—gone, gone, gone!” Using as a charm the words. “Stretch out. stride along.” she stepped from hill to hill and overtook Ilau-tiipatu, and the messenger was called riroriro.