NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14133, 7 August 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY

IN NEW ZEALAND. BY JAMES DEUUMOND. F.L.S , V.Z-S. ' Mb. C. Mahonet, who lives at Waitokaro, Tuparoa, near Gisborne, > states that when he first went to that ■ district, after many years" residence in Otago, he was much struck by the great difference in climatic conditions, and the consequent difference in animal life. One of the first things that attracted his notice was the number of frogs in every likely and unlikely situation. A pond had been formed by the rain quite close to the hotel where he lodged at Waipiro, and the croaking of the frogs in it was deafening. The landlord informed him that it had been even worse some time before, but that he had dosed the pond with kerosene, and had caused a temporary exodus, as his lodgers could get no sleep in consequence of the din. On going to the locality, Mr. Mahoney found that on a stroll in the moonlight, during the autumn, hundreds of frogs | would be met with, travelling across the dusty road. They were heading away from the river, their objective being, he thinks, a shallow lagoon under the hill, where, a little later, they raised their voices in joyful, though discordant song. There are three things about frogs ' which he has noticed here in New Zealand that he does j not remember observing in Australia. One day he saw a frog seated on a piece of plank covering an open drain near, the school. It was a very hot summer day in December. There was no water in tne drain, but the ground under the plank was moist. As he was watching it, some children came scampering past, and the frog immediately retreated under the end of the plank. But whenever the alarm was over it popped out again and sat once more' in the glaring sunlight. This little comedy was repeated several times, the frog certainly being determined to have his sun-bath whatever betide. Mr. Mahoney was surprised, as he had previously thought that such an exposure to the sun would be death to a frog. " '

Some interesting notes on kahawai fishing have been sent by Mr. E. T. Frost, cf Waimauku. He states that in the spring enormous shoals of these fish enter the Waikato River, most of them going in on the flood tide and returning with the gbb. When they enter with the flood,, large numbers may be caught with the Maoris' old device of paw a shell and hook. It is dragged behind a canoe, boat, or launch. The fish are attracted by the bright shell, rush openmouthed at it, and are hooked and hauled on board. Any number between two hundred and six hundred ' may be caught on a tide by one boat with two lines. One day one kind of coloured shell will attract most fish, and the next day, under different weather conditions, the fish will not look at it. The Maoris and others who go fishing for kahawai regularly keep about a dozen different kinds of shells. If one does not seem to attract the fish,'they change it, and; continue to do this until they have discovered what the fish like. v Sometimes the kaha-t wai are very easy to'. capture. ; ; ; Mr. Frost has caught them on the nook* without any shell, but onlv a piece of white rag, or even a piece of string wrapped round the shank of the hook. When fishing from a steam launch he has often noticed that some of the fish caught had been gashed in the body. At first he attributed this to the attacks of sea birds, but afterwards he ascertained that the wounds are inflicted by the propeller.' The blades, being bright at the tips, attract the fish, which rush in and out, and sometimes receivc a heavy blow. Apparently the wounds are not regarded by the fish as of much consequence. Even when severely wounded, they dash for the hook as soon as they see it. Some of them have had their bodies ripped open and the inside exposed, and their voracity is as strong as if they were whole. Mr. Frost is led by these observations to believe that fish have a less sensitive sense of feeling than warm-blooded creatures have. He says that any of the higher animals,' after receiving the wounds he has seen in kahawai, would lose their appetite for ever, instead of trying to devour a fresh meal immediately rfter the wounds had been inflicted.

r Mr. Howes supplements the notes of a North Canterbury correspondent in regard to the habits of the mason-bee, or masonwasp, published some time ago. . Amongst other curious places, he says, they have been known to build their cells in the bowl of an old pipe, in a spectacle case, and in the folds of clothing' put away on a shelf. He agrees with the statement that this wasp stupefies the spider it catches. He explains that it does this by a ; continual buzzing of the wings, which sounds strangely at particular times, being subdued, but at the same time shriller than when the buzzing is done in the open. He describes the insects as being very industrious and pertinacious,'and states that they will return time after time to rebuild after their cells have been destroyed. Apparently they suddenly disappear in the middle of the summer. He refers,to another mud-cell building wasp; which in colour more closely :. resembles the wasp at Home, but this one does not seem to go near habitations. '• • , . . .-.

Mr. W. W. Smith still maintains that the ' laughing owl" laughs, and that its laughter must not be attributed to petrels on their night flight over the land. In some additional notes he has written, he says that during the spring and early summer evenings petrels pass at great heights from the east coast of the South Island to the west coast, and their somewhat petulant cries are often mistaken for the cries of the "laughing jackass" or "laughing owl." If the afternoons and evenings are dull and damp when the petrels migrate to the west they fly lower; but they invariably try to reach the west coast before darkness , overtakes them. They also fly at an exceptionally swift pace, and their cries may be heard vanishing with them as they speed on their course. But the truly laughter-like calls of the "laughing owl" are heard loudest and most frequently on very dark nights, and may sometimes be heard all through the night. In the neighbourhood of their haunts, a lew years ago, they could be heard laughing simultaneously in several directions, but very seldom on moonlight ;■ nights. Mr. Smith repeats that there is 110 possibility of confounding, or even comparing, the cries of the petrels with those of the "laughing owl." They are uttered at different times, in different localities, and under totally different circumstances. In the edition of Sir Walter Buller's " History of the Birds of New Zealand," published in 1888, Mr. Smith advanced a theory that in former times the "laughing owl" subsisted chiefly on the "Kiore Maori," or native rat, and he now sflfc-s that it seems to him that he had very sound data to work upon. When exploring for the owls in the high fissures of the Albury rocks, he discovered quantities of the large pellets regurgitated by the owls. , The pellets, buried deeper in the fine, dry sand covering the bottoms of the fissures", were composed solely of the hair and small bones of the native rat. Pellets rejected more re-; cently, and found lying on the surface, or a few inches' beneath it, are composed chiefly of the -i elytra and legs of beetles, with an : occasional mixture ot the hair of mice and the fine feathers of small birds. These facts, f he addu, may easily be verified in the localities noted by anyone interested in the past n <ngaiu>( history of the lsuiorliintr owl." .