IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16564, 30 May 1914, Page 8

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN: NEW ZEALAND. j

(By J. DRUMMOND, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) j Mr E. B. Clarke, of Waimate North, ; complains that sea-fish are somewhat neglected in this column. He finds life in the sea the most interesting of all natural history studies, and he suggests that New Zealanders should give it more attention than it receives, at present, and that observers who live near the sea should forward for publication notes on their observations. " During" my fishing excursions," he writes, I have caught a creature which, I think is not well known. It is the snake-eel, or pukekorokoro. It is caught only on the open coast, in rocky grounds, and it is a nasty customer to handle. In shape, it is somewhat liko the common fresh-water eel. It has a broad, flat tail, rounded at the end, and not sharply pointed, like that of the conger eel. Its long body—l have caught specimens six feet long and slightly thicker than a man's wrist —has the same thickness all the way. The head is much smaller in circumference than the body, and slopes down to a hlunt nose. Between the eyes, there ai-e three short horns, the middle one slightly higher than the others. These horn's are about a quarter of an inch long, and are fairly sharp at the points. The jaws are supplied with very formidable teeth, exactly like the fangs, of a cat. They are very sharp, and are set back, aud anything the animal grips has little chance of escaping. Tho jaws are surprisingly strong. Even after the head is cut off, it is almost impossible to open them. The colour of the skin is yellowish brown, with dark spots down the back and sides, but there is a lighter colour un- - deraeath."

Mr E. R. Waite, curator of the South Australian Museum, to whom Mr Clarke's letter was referred, states that, it possibly refers to an eel of tho genud Gymnothorax, which has peculiar tubu-' la r nostrils, and these, he thinks, "mayhave given the impression that the eel possesses horns. Mr Waite adds:—• " The description of the teeth and general shape agrees well with the condition of eels of this genus. Tho snako eel, to which your correspondent refers, is of the. genus Ophisurus, but this is a long attenuated fish which the description supplied does not fit. * -In the absence of a specimen or more technical account I am afraid I cannot say more in regard to the identification of this eel."

Eels, evidently, still occupy a good deal of attention. One of the latest contributions in regard to these creatures' habits is from Mr R. Wright, of New Lynn. Auckland. He has been in New Zealand for three years, but his experience with eels was gained at Loch Lomondside, Scotland. The lake is a sheet of fresh water twenty-two miles lons and six miles wide at some parts. It nas an overflow river of about nine miles, which connects it with the sea, and the district affords many on- ; portunities for observing eels. Mr - Wright docs not think that eels spawn in fresh water creeks, or, as they are called in Scotland, burns. The end of June and as far as the middlo of July, . when the weather in the Old Country becomes warm, is " eeling time." The I eel fry then migrate in countless numbers from the sea up tho river to the ' upper reaches of the loch. They vary j in length from three inches to five > inches, and are almost transparent except for the little, sao they carry. The migration follows each side of the river and continues night and day from two weeks to three weeks. The young opU .were so numerous that Mr Wright and his hoy friends sometimes scooped'them up in handfuls. Many of them, after passing into the loch, nave short shrift from the watchful pike, and perch also prey upon them without mercy. But many others make their way up the large numbers of rivers that empty themselves into the loch. Weeks afterwards Mr Wright has found them in small hill streams, at the migration season, removed from the spawning .ground by twenty-five or thirty miles. Many of the hill streams in Scotland at that time of the year aro very low on account of want of rain, but he has often found tho eels snugly bedded between the moist lichen on tho face of a rocky waterfall, and wherever there . was the least trickle of water they . could be seen pushing their way onward to the upper roaches of tho streams. He has found them in tho merest pools of water in peat mosses, in the same way as larger specimens are found the creeks of New Zealand.

Mr Dudley Le Souef, Director of the Zoological Gardens in Melbourne, who. is interested in this discussion, has sent a clipping from the '' Australasion," dealing with eels in the Commonwealth. Tho writer, in reply to a question, states that until recently no female eel had been found with ova in her, but that a discovery now lias been made in this direction. An col caught in the sea off the coast of the United States contained ova. The eggs are roughly estimated to number 9,000,000. The writer adds that the eel goes to very deep water, from throe to six thousand feet deep, to spawn, and that its capture with ova inside, consequently, is very difficult. Mr Le Souef in his letter expresses an opinion that this clipping will interest readers of this column. He suggests that I should ask if anybody in New Zealand has found eels containing ova in fresh water. " If you receive any answers," he says, " they will be valuable, but I do not think that you will have one in tho affirmative."

There are no eels in the rivers of Western New South Wales, but rivers on the eastern slopes, immediately opposite, and only a short distance away, abound in eels. The writer in the "Australasian" was asked why cpls do not inhabit the western rivers. He points out that those rivers run into the Murray, which does not empty itself directly, into the sea. Ho accepts the position as fairly good proof that eels must have access to the sea, and that they will flourish only in streams that diavo direct connection with the sea. Odd eels occasionally are found in the western rivers of New South Wales, but it is believed that these solitary specimens have got into strange waters by accident. When caught they are u usually very largo. In reply to another question the writer in the "Australasian" states that a theory Jias been accepted that the eel originally was a salt-water fish only. . Later, it began, to visit rivers in search of food, returning to the sea at intervals. These intervals gradually became longer, and at last were so long that the eel became what it is now, practically a fresh-water fish.'

A correspondent at Waihi reports that many years ago he caught in that district several specimens of the marsh rail and the swamp rail, two birds which now seem to be very rare. The marsh rail is a small bird, brown on top. but with white spots and black markings. On the under-surface it is barred with black and whito. It is the Maoris' kaitareke or koreke. It lives mostly in flax swamps, and cats and dogs are its principal enemies. The swamp rail is a little slatey blue bird, with white bands on its black tail feathers. It also lives in swamps, especially amongst the raupo. It swims well and is very graceful on the water. The marsh rail is found only in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, but the swamp rail is a resident of the Polynesian Islands.. New Caledonia, Australia and the Philippine Islands.