NATURE—AND MAN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 13 June 1936, Page 11

NATURE — AND MAN

« FRIENDLY BELL-BIRDS AND TUIS

FEEDING AND SINGING IN MANY GARDENS

(Edited by Leo Fanning)

It is very heart-warming to hear the good news that many people m various districts are forming firm friendships with beli-birds and tuis by a policy of kind gardening which assures feasts for those charmers. For example, Mrs P. Hoby, whose home is at Tataraimaka (about 15 _

miles from New Plymouth), told me recently that bell-birds and tuis came regularly to her garden to enjoy nectar of flowers and berries, and they gladly paid for their feasts with plenty of songs, especially in early morning. In one bush of fuchsia fulgens she saw seven bell-birds sipping the beautiful chalices. Some of these feast-yielcling shrubs are quite close to tlae house, but the birds have no fear of the folk who pass near. Sometimes when Mrs Hoby used the telephone the bellbirds near the house sang in such volume that the melody could be heard at the other end of the wire in New Plymouth. In another locality of Taranaki there is a man (an Englishman) who affects to be distressed by the bell-bird chorus which comes from a neighbour’s garden. He puts cotton-wool in his ears—and yet that same man can listen to a radio-set all day and

night. Perhaps it is a pose. Or is that a way of registering a protest against the declaration of a New Zealand writer that the song of the nightingale is surpassed by the chants of the tui and the bell-bird? “BLACKGUARD” SHAGS In a previous issue I gave part of H. Guthrie-Smith’s remarks on the callous conduct of a species of shags in their meeting-place on a rocky islet off Stewart Island. Readers will enjoy another instalment (from “MuttonBirds and Other Birds”): — “The nests on the southern edge of the breeding grounds are never, I believe, finished. In this ‘No Man’s Land,’ no pair of shags can complete their work. Here stand the ruins of scores of half-built, and quarter- built nests, their walls broken and eroded with continuous skirmishes, scufflings, and chasings. From the pillars rather more advanced the seaweed lining is pilfered as soon as spread. On the untidy floor, dusty with trampling and gritty with guano, sand, and fragments of fish bone, eggs are scattered everywhere. Any real knowledge of the building habits of these Stewart Island shags cannot of course be gathered in a day, but I think that birds relegated to this Alsatia must be breeding for the first time. Thieving, though general throughout the colony, does not elsewhere culminate in communal ruin. Even, however, in the better portion of the nesting community, stealing is all prevalent, and after an hour almost ceases to attract attention.

“I ha% T e seen a bird take up in his bill, eggs, presumably from a strange nest, and with a slight movement of his head cast them aside. He then, I remember, proceeded on his way; but as this happened immediately after landing, there was so great a confusion and so much of interest to follow that, taking my eye for a moment off this particular bird, I lost him in the crowd. PITILESS PILFERING “Then again, I saw a bird ransack his next door neighbour’s nest. In it there were little helpless jet black, naked chicks. No kind of pity was shown them, but borne off in huge greedy mouthfuls, until the wretched nestlings were left bare on the sunbeaten top of their coprolitic pile. But I think the evil propensities of the race were even more markedly shown in a third case. The sinner was evidently, from his size, an old bird and one of the so-called dark ‘pink footed species. The tardiness of his every action gave him a double air of sobriety. He might have been an elder of the Kirk in his ‘blacks,’ yet he paused to rummage over a whole nest for a pitiful bit of dirty stick, and then hopped still very slowly from tier to tier cf the row of nests vacated, in the immediate proximity of the camera. I think it was the deliberation of each downward hop and the shamelessness of the paltry theft, so open and so brazen —a penny stolen from the plate —that emphasised the cold depravity and passionless sin of the old bird. I do not know that the wickedness of the action was increased when the wretched twig was dropped; it had not even been required. “Although most of the shags had built, many w'ere still attempting to do so; yet during the hours spent on the rock a single bird only was noticed flying in laden with seaweed. The habits of robbery and theft so engrained in the breed must cause a considerable wastage in eggs and young life.” FORESTS—AND POWER New Zealand should be represented at the Third World Power Conference which is to be opened on 7th September at Washington, U.S.A. The subjects for discussion include technical, economic and social trends, public regulation, national and regional planning, conservation of fuel and water resources, national power and resources policies.. The delegates from Norway will be sure to have some good information and opinions on water-conservation, which of course demands the safe-guarding of protective forests on watersheds. It is mentioned in “American Forests” that the whole meeting is being arranged to appeal to the layman as well as to the engineer. A NEW ZEALAND POET’S PRAYER Here are some inspiring lines by Boyce Bowden — I pray that the gods may keep you wise In the wonder-lore which the Outroads teach, And the psalms which rise where the great hills rise, And the hymns that ring from the windy beach, In the chant that wells from the leaves of the trees, The call of the waters, the cry of the birds; Of nights which loiter across the seas And speak with beauty more rich than words, And the faith in such wonders manifold; Worlds'that spin through the outer spheres, Nights of storm and morns of gold. Oh, I pray the gods that the faith I hold May be your faith through the marching years!