NATURE—AND MAN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 23 May 1936, Page 11

NATURE—AND MAN

A COMEDY OF 3HAGDOM PENALTY OF PRIVILEGE (Edited by Leo Fanning) On a rocky islet off the coast of Stewart Island, there is a slmggery which has been in use by countless generations of birds. “U is wholly given over to thieving and riots, whore

might is right and only present possession is respected,” remarks 11. GuthrieSmith in ‘'Mutton Birds and Other Birds.” lie mentions that the nests are equidistant and tend to form rows, just as in planting trees at regular distances, straight lines develop themselves. Automatically therefore lanes have been formed —alleys along which the eentremost birds have to venture when about to leave their breeding quarters. These paths radiate from the middle of the nesting grounds; and, as no shag can fly upwards, along them the departing birds have to waddle with the most awkward gait imaginable, stopping high with legs widely spread apart, and showing at every movement the huge unwieldly webbed feet. The central positions may be rather safer from the seas (continues the author); they may be rather more sheltered from the gales; and it may be that no shag, owning a nest so situ-

ated, would care to forego its advantages, just as no man would care to change his lot in every way with that of any other man. Amongst shags, however, as amongst men, no benefit can be enjoyed without its accompanying disability; and here the more safe and central the position of the nest, the greater the odium attached to its owner, and the more fierce the hatred expressed. By its look when about to journey forth, a shag from one of these centralmost nests betrays his knowledge of the greeting in store. In his aspect there is somethiilg of trepidation and nervousness, and younger birds, I suppose, sometimes for a moment hesitate, with the vacillating air of a timid country woman at a crowded crossing, and seem, in the yells of execration, almost to lose their wits.

There is no escape, however. Each bird, vacating its nest, must pass down the lines, and has to run the gauntlet, with lowered head, feathers tightly compressed, ecr tamed at by every sitting bird, and barely out of striking and pecking distance. The conduct of the nestling shaglets, half-grown fellows sti'l in the wool, added still another touch of humour to the picture. Whenever the screaming heralded the approach of a. passerby. each nestful on the track started at once to life. Heads were everywhere reared aloft, and the route thronged to enjoy the spectacle. These nestlings were as fierce in their screams and as eager as the mature birds to rug and tug at feathers happily within reach, and it was truly ludicrous to watch their juvenile participation in the cruel fun. This pleasure is denied entirely only to the central quartet of nesting birds—those, that is, in possession of the very best and centralmost building sites, and by whose homes consequently no shag passes on foot. It is enjoyed to the uttermost and without fear of retaliation only by the outermost birds — those, that is, with wind-blown and spray-beaten nests —and is delightfully prolonged by a tardiness of progression that not even shame and fear can accelerate

The shag, when on foot, must raise his feet; he must carefully plant them down, and with what joy must he not fall over the cliff’s edge and feel the air beneath his wings. In its conjunction of trepidation and .shame, the mien of a cowed shag, thus passing down one. of these terrible lanes, can be compared only to that of a nervous person threading the aisle of a great church alone, with creaking boots, the parson stopping his discourse the better to emphasise his displeasure, and every individual of the congregation rising to yell opprobious remarks, whilst those at the pew doors hurl their hymn books, kick, and attempt to trip him; or, to that of a man in a nightmare, conscious more of ignominy than of fear, condemned to pass, companionless in his shame through a ballroom without his trousers, and with the further consciousness of thick ankles, negro heels, misshapen calves, and that he has not washed his legs for a fortnight and two days.

Such arc the agonies that shags can inflict on their fellowshags; and it must not he thought that these comparisons arc merely fanciful. Expression of the emotions in birds is as distinct and interpretable, to those who have watched, as is the expression of his emotions in man’s friend, his dog. Man, dog, or bird, each lias been digged from the same pit, moulded from the same clay. Although developed on divergent lilies each lias been modelled on a common plan, and -there still exists, diluted to tenuity and strained through time incalculable, an essential sympathy. The pain and pleasure of the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, can never appeal in a foreign tongue to man. His frame is theirs, and it is by the corporal kinship that he can read expression as well as comprehend emotion. TREES—LIVING MEAIORTALS An important feature of Arbor Day this year in all districts should be the planting of trees in memory of worthy men and women, dead and living. In this respect admirable progress has been made in some localities, but plenty of scope remains for similar enterprise. Last year fifty trees and shrubs were planted in the grounds of the Christchurch Boys’ High School. ! liree of those trees were the beginning of the Bcvcn-Brown Grove, in honour ol a former headmaster and his family. Why should not all schools—with space to spare—have similar groves? LIBELS ON EAGLES Every now and then stories appear in the newspapers graphically describing how an eagle has flown off with a baby (states an editorial article in “Nature Magazine”). The inevitable efleet, and, now and then, the object ol such tales is to place this splendid bird in bad odour and lend further support to the persecution to which it is now subjected. r I lie most recent of these fake “eagle carries away child” yarns was reported in the press all over the country with a Hugo, Minnesota, date-line. *-i golden eagle was said to have gone off with a nine-months-old baby. The National Association of Audubon Societies investigated. From their representative, -I. P. Jensen, they got the truth. Mr Jensen reported:

A golden eagle, with a wing spread of Slj inches, was apparently pursuing a hawk, and in its flight it was caught between two automobiles on the pavement of a city street. It flew upwards and was electrocuted by a high tension wire, just above. The eagle was only slightly burned and is being mounted by Air Arnold Lindberg. The baby in the case, and 7ts mother, were, at the time of the eagle incident, 2flo miles away visiting, and the story was given to the newspapers as a joke.”