IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15210, 22 January 1910, Page 6

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

(By JAMES' DR UMMOND, F.L.S., F.Z.S,)

NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND.

An account of what took place at Brookbv, Auckland, shows that determination is one of the starling’s prominent characteristics, at nesting-time, at any rate. The incident is related by M r Harold Blow, who states that a small flock of starlings established their nests under the eaves.of the school building. As their constant, whistling and screaming was a source of annoyance, he thought to frighten them away by robbing the nests, of which there were several. He removed over twenty oggs from four nests. But, unlike any other wild bird he knows cf, the starlings refused to quit. It was soon ovident that they were laying again, so in about ten days he examined the nests and collected nineteen eggs, and also obtained three others from a fifth nest. Nothing daunted, the birds began to lay about the third day after being robbed. - He left them for about a fortnight, when he collected twentytwo eggs from six nests, another pair having made a start. After that several birds still continued laying, and three more times he robbed them, collecting altogether oVer thirty eggs. The last time he found any eggs was just before Christmas, when the birds apparently gave up hope, and most of them disappeared, those remaining making no further attempts to establish nests.

“I have all my life taken a keen interest in Nature, especially in insect life, and have spent many a summer day wandering about the bush and rivorbank in my native land. Victoria, with no other companions than the birds and insects,'” writes Mr C. Mahoney, from Waitakaro, Tuparoa, on the East Coast of the North Island. “ l spoak of forty years ago, and yet what I saw then still remains vividly impressed upon my mind. How often have I seen an ichneumon fly rapidly running over and under the thistle leaves in seach of caterpillars, and then when the object of their search was attained, seen the sudden spring, the rapid stab in the back of the caterpillar, and the deposition of an egg, despite the squirming of tho unhappy host. One curious experience 1 may relate. A small grey bird, with a. plaintive piping note, probably a warbler, built its nest among the long grass upon the thistles, not on tho ground, but only a foot or so 1 above, where it was well concealed. In ciie of the nests—for I knew of many—l noticed that one of the chicks had quite outgrown its follows, and one morning I found this sturdy fellow alone in the nest, while its two fellownestlings were gasping on the ground below. Thinking that they hau fallen out, I replaced them, but •no sooher had T done so than what I took for their big brother promptly pushed them cut again, one after the other. llis method of doing so was to turn tail on to his victim, and, by dint of pushing and a backward movement, edge them over the side. He did not. as text books state, get his victim upon his back before thrusting him out. Of course, 1 did not know ( was a witness °f - the strategy of a young cuckoo in getting the home to himself. My sympathy was all with the weak,' so I promptly pitched the big fellow far into tho thistle elumo, and replaced the ejected fledglings.”

Some time ago a note was published in this column asking if anyone had ever seen a mysterious bird, which tho Maoris called pukenui (“ big stomach”). Sir Walter Buller often searched for it, but. although tho Maoris described it to him iu detail time after time, he never saw it. Sir. Walter Buller believed in the existence of Big Stomach

to the last, and some evidence on tha point is brought forward by Mr Robert iWair, of Whangarei, who has sent- ami extract from Yates’s -“ New Zealand/’] published in 1835. Mr Yates was * member of the Church Missionary Society. He resided in Now Zealand for more than six years, and evidently was a close and careful observer. Dealing’ with natural history, he makes the following remarks: —“ Pukenui, a bird so called from the largeness and rotundity cf its breast, about the size of a crow, and remarkable for the deep red with which the feathers are tinged on the back and under the wings. Its legs are about five inches long, and rather slender for the;size, of the body. - Its beakj is lilt'd that of the fieldfare, a-nd the! eve. of a light brown, colour, wick; a ring of white round' it. The birds are never found in the woods, but on Hid side ot : brooks, and in barren, land,' amongst the stunted fern. By the Natives’ account, they seek for their food by turning over the pebbles or small pieces of dried marl, under which, they.j discover worms, which are their, favour-. ite food. The female lays four eggs,' spotted with brown upon a light-brown, B,d and makes her nest ill the called kahikatoa (Leptospernum, scoparium). They are here well sheltered from the wind and rain, on account of tho thickness of the foliage and the strength of the plant.” i

Mr J. W. Murdoch, of Half-moon. Bay, Stewart Island, states that, according to tlie “ old hands,” there was once a large -heronry .of the white heron in the-southern- arm of Pegasus Harbour, but the birds were gradu-t ally and wantonly destroyed by cuttermen and others, until only two were left > For the past, six years these ,twcj Iliad a- perilous existence. They were not in company. They saw each'other often enough, lmt their headquarter® were in different arms of the.harbour.' Probablv ’both were males. Towards the end of 1908 one of them disappeared,.* and Stewart Island now has only one white heron. It- inhabits the northern arm of the harbour, and lS often seen sitting on an., outlying limb of cue of the large number of, rata trees that overhang the water, ot standing on the rocKS, watching for fi 3 h. It is given some measure of pro* te< tio.- by Messrs Robertson and Co., j who own" a- fish-freezing establishment in that part of Stewart Island. A few vears ago there was a beautiful pair "of white herons in Paterson’s Inlet, close to Half-moon Bay. Although they wore always, in company they did not breed. First one and then the o'her fell a victim to human cruelty.'

Mr B. Keys, writing from Kihikihi, Auckland province, says:—“lt M hardly correct to state that South Island birds are never seen in the North Island. I have seen the yellow-head, tir' oopokotca or ‘canary/ in-thobush on * Mount M’Kerrow, Wellington; Major Muir has seen the yellow-■ wauled crow of the South Island on the Wanganui River; and I have seen the puro black South Island fantail at Takapuahia, near Wellington, and also in. tho Wellington Botanical Gardens.

“ I. claim that 1 was the. first settle* in the Forty-mile Bush, in the Wellington province, or nearly so,” a correspondent says, “ and I have seen, tho bird-life undergo a marvellous change, since, say, 1864 or 1865, when I first: came here and settled. I attribute tho disappearance bf native birds chiefly to the destruction of the bush, which has been brought about) by fire and felling. The forests were the homes of the birds and afforded thorn food supplies in the shape of both berries and insecte. ’

The blue-wattled crow of the North Island, the Maoris’ kokako. does not seem to be as rare as it lias been reported for twenty or twenty-five years. Several notes have reached me in. regard to the. presence of this bird in outlying districts. Mi' Elsdon Best states that when lie visited Ruatahuna oarlv last year the Maoris told him that a few kokako had been seen in the district shortly before his visit, and a gentleman who resides near Taneatua told him that tho bird was found at Puke-moremore, betweon Taneatua and Oliiwa. The bell-bird lias also been seen and heard at Ruatahuna.-hut the Maoris say that nearly all the bell-birds Been there this year were male birds.