NATURE—AND MAN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 30 September 1933, Page 10

NATURE— AND MAN

TWO VIEWS OF THE FOREST

OLD TIMES—AND NEW

(Edited by Leo Fanning)

This week I read a very interesting review, written some years ago by Dr. J. G. Myers and Mr Esmond Atkinson, on old-time friends of the native forest —friends that enabled the trees to flourish in beautiful health until man, the mighty enemy, swept into the sylvan scenes. The friends were birds, of course, which worked in a wonderful co-operation. The greatest mind on this earth could not have evolved as good a plan for the preservation and propagation of trees. Those melodious lioney-eaters—the tui and the bellbird—helped to pollinate certain trees. No wonder they arc sweet singers! They turn the nectar into liquid notes which no human voice nor instrument can imitate. Those birds and others carried far and wide the seed of berries so that the forests could extend their green frontiers. On the forest floor many birds, small and large, fossicked incessantly for insects, their eggs and their larvae. Other search parties peered and probed for meals of insects on the bark of trees. Others were ever busy among twigs and leaves. Others took insects on the wing. Each species had its own way of winning a living, and each method was good for the forest. Alas! How different is the state of affairs to-day! What a long series of disastrous blunders, muddles and accidents the past century has seen! The mischief did not begin with the first Maori settlers. They had a deep veneration—even a superstitious fear—of the forest, which they treated with the utmost respect and proper religious rites. At certain times of the year they took birds for food, but this was done very carefully, in accordance with strict decrees of chiefs.

Unhappily that old order has gone. Many of the Maoris, if they have the opportunity, will not hesitate to kill pigeons and kakas, and they will even feast on tuis. The tapu, which once regulated their conduct, has gone, and they give no heed to the pakeha law, if they feel that they can break it safely.

British colonisation brought much stupid destruction of forests on steep rugged country which could not promise a suitable surface for pasture except in the vision of a. half-wit or nitwit. Then came germs of diseaso which spread from introduced birds to the native birds. Other aliens—cats, dogs, rats and weasels—preyed heavily on the ground-feeding birds of the woods, and some of these animals could climb trees for the robbing of nests. Pigs and deer seriously disturbed the floor in large areas of forest. Goats, deer and opossums ravaged the undergrowth and attacked the trees themselves —and thus the tale of havoc lids gone on. However, the worse the position is, the more must the real friends of the forests and birds strive to safeguard the survivors.

“FALCONRY” OF FANTAILS

Many writers on New Zealand birds have referred to the friendly visits of fa.ntails to houses in search of flies inside. “We have even an authentic record of a fantail which was regularly let in at the front door of a dwellinghouse and suffered to depart when it had cleared from the premises its daily catch of flies,” wrote Dr. Myers. What an improvement on messy fly-papers and clumsy swatters! That remark of Dr. Myers almost raises a hope that, by patience and perserverance, many thousands of the Dominion’s homes may have their own fantails, as official fly-catchers. That shrewdness of the fantail in discerning that the habitations of man are often good hunting-places is pleasantly mentioned by Mr Edgar Stead in His “Life Histories of New Zealand Birds.” “While they will often take small insects from a wall,” he writes, “they do not as a rule catch house-flies unless these are in flight. I have often ‘flushed’ house-flies from curtains or walls for a fantail that would sit on some convenient perch—a lamp-shade or a picture-frame—and dart at them immediately they took flight. Miniature golf and table tennis having something of a vogue to-day, I am tempted to suggest this as a pastime in a country where genuine falconry is nonexistent, for it is wonderful how quickly these birds will realise they are being helped in this way, and make every use of assistance. As winter approaches, and smaller food gets scarcer, fantails will readily take house-flies, and even large moths and blue-bottles, capturing their prey and flying to a perch with it in their bill. They they take it in one foot, and, holding it against the perch, peck it to pieces and devour it. When fantails are in houses, mirrors have a great attraction for them, and they flutter up and down against the glass, fighting their shadow with the greatest fury, emitting shrill squeaks the while. For perhaps ten seconds they will do this, and then fly to some nearby perch for a spell, returning to the attack as soon as they have regained their breath. They will sometimes continue this procedure for ten minutes or more, interspersing their fighting with an occasional flight after food, as if to sustain them for further efforts.”

BIRDS IN A GARDEN

This spring, for the first time, I have seen a white-eye sipping nectar from the fragrant pink bloom of a flowering-currant in my garden. Once nearly a dozen were fitting prettily among the flowers. If js a new find which they like heartily—so much so that the treasure-trove is delaying the departure of some of them to 'their nesting haunts far away. At the time of writing (the morning- of 25th September) I gazecl for a few moments at the bright-hued shrub, and sure enough several silver-eyed searchers were there. By the clock they should have been oft' with their mates last week, hut evidently cupboard-lovc was stronger for a time than the nesting instinct.

Those white-eyes must have been impressed by the example of the bees, hut why did it take them so long to follow that lead? This is the fifth season’s' flowering of that currant, hut in previous years the little birds, although they keenly inspected the bush for insects, grubs and blight, did not touch the flowers. Birds are usually conservative in their habits, but some of them certainly do son experimenting in the quest of food. Near that currant is a solamnn capsicastrum, a shrub which hears a wealth of beautiful round berries,

like miniature smooth-skinned oranges in form and colour. Nothing could look more appetising, and yet not one bird pecked at them—until this year. Each of six autumns brought that alluring crop, but always it was respected by birds. Yet this year, blackbirds and thrushes made onsets. They darted at the berries and swallowed them whole. Evidently there had been some experimenting somewhere, and a new source of food came into the world of these birds.

Don’t be grey for another day ! Rachel Tonic brings back the natural colour of your hair without dyeing. 3/6. —R. W. Martin, Chemist.