NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14145, 21 August 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND.

| BY JAKES DBUUMOKD, F.L.S., F.Z.3.

A sea-hunter, who spends a great deal of his time on sheep stations in the kea country amongst the sheep-Killers of Canterbury, and who lias caught hundreds of them, relates an inoident to show that the evil name they have been given is not undeserved. He states that at 2.30 o'clock in the morning on March 16 last, -when he was going over a saddle, lie came on to a place where about 40 half-bred sheep were camped. He noticed that one of them was turning round and round, evidently in some distress. After a time, it went past him, and he then saw that there was a kea on its back and another kea following on the wing, a few yards behind. The bird on the sheep's back had its wings outstretched and fluttering, as if it was balancing itself. There was bright moonlight, and it seemed to the watcher that this bird had its beak buried in the wool. They went along for ten or twelve chains, until they reached an old watercourse. The watcher followed them down, and saw the sheep lying on the ground, with the bird on its upper side. He prepared a bait off the sheep, and presently the kea, which was a male, came up, stopped on to the man's hand, and was captured. There were several cuts on the sheep's back over the loins, where the kea had stood, about half an inch long, and of a' triangular shape, the wool and skin having been torn off. When the bird was killed and opened, in the presence of the manager of the station and another witness, pieces of meat were found in him. The evidence, although circumstantial, corroborates that obtained by other investigators, who declare that the kea is guilty of sheep-killing. In the face of what has been published, indeed, there is no room for any reasonable doubt in the kea's favour. The kea-hunter who supplies this information believes that few keag under two years of age worry sheep, and that the young ones contract the abominable habit by feeding on dead sheep, which have been snowed up or have met their deaths in other ways. When a kea starts killing, it never throws off the habit. Havoc is wrought all the year round, even when berries are plentiful, which shows that the birds take to sheep-killing in preference, and are not driven to it on account of the scarcity of the usual food supplies. My informant says that on several stations the kea's death-roll is from 1000 to 1500 sheep every year.

Mr. E. B. Izard, of Stoke, Nelson, says that he finds the moiepork owls very tame in his district, and he often gets within three feet of one when it sits at dusk on his picket fence. One evening lately, when he was standing at dusk in the middle of his drive, under the branches of an apple tree, he suddenly heard a whining noise, and felt the very lightest of touches on. the top of his hat. Putting up his hand, he just touched his "morepork" friend as it swooped off, probably more astonished than he was.

" Your ' Nature Notes" interest me greatly," writes Mr; T. (polling, from Waihi. "When I first started going to school, after some years at a private onei, the headmaster was a great naturalist, and on the afternoons, while the girls had their sewing lessons, the boys used to have an object lesson in natural history, and learn the class, division, order, and family of the various animals, and the particular localities in which they were to be found.

So interested were the 'boys, that I remember that most books taken out of the school library were ones dealing with natural history, and our greatest ambition, as boys, was to be a naturalist, or a great traveller, like Livingstone. For the re-

mainder of my school days I was with many different teachers, but although there were always natural history charts on the wall, I never remember another teacher giving lessons on the subject. That is now over 24 years ago, and reading your ' Nature' 'Notes' • brings those lessons back to me as vividly as if I was just receiving them."

Mr. Robin Kemp has sent me a very interesting note from Long Sutton, Langport, Somersetshire, England. Two years ago, while he was in the Hokianga district, in the Auckland province, he obtained the skins of four quail, which differed so much from the typical Australian swamp quail that he thought they must be speci-

mens of the New Zealand quail. He took them to England with him with the object of settling the point. He now states that

they can only be referred to the Australian quail, which was introduced into New Zealand about 40 years ago. While there is no doubt that they are descendants of the imported birds, however, they show a good deal of* divergence from the typical Australian quail. He was impressed with this when he compared them with the series in the British Museum, and still

more when he compared them with a fine series of Australian quail in the possession of Mr. Matthews, of Australia, who is now in London. When Mr. Matthews saw the Hokianga specimens, he said at once that they were not the typical Australian, form. Mr. Kemp believes that it is likely that some admixture of blood has taken place in regard to the introduced Australian swamp quail; either the remnants of the New Zealand quail, or possibly a few individuals of the other Australian quail (Coturnix pectoralis), which was introduced about 40 years ago, but which failed to establish itself. Mr. Kemp adds that time could be spent advantageously in studying the changes of characteristics of forms of introduced birds. It would be interesting to follow up the case of the quail, but he points out that to do this it would be

necessary to obtain a large series of both sexes at varying ages and from different localities, as individuals amongst quail vary greatly. In skylarks there are very marked individual, variations, due to age, sex, rainfall, and other causes. A correspondent in Auckland states that some time ago he was an interested observer of a novel performance. - A young fledgling sparrow was perched on the top of a cypress, fluttering its wings and chirruping in the manner adopted by greedy young sparrows when they are being fed by their parents. A starling had taken the place of the mother sparrow, and was forcing a large worm down the throat of the hungry and willing sparrow. . The worm was partly swallowed by the young bird, but the final effort was unsuccessful, and the worm fell to the ground. The starling immediately flew down, seized the worm, and made another effort to cram it down the throat of the fluttering and chirruping sparrow. It was still unsuccessful, however, and it ultimately flew away with the worm. The ' correspondent adds that a fairly large number of starlings and sparrows make their homes and rear their fami-

lies on his buildings, but he does not suggest that either species have adopted parasitical nesting habits. Some years ago, a member of his family brought homo a nest of newly-hatched goldfinches. They were placed in a cage with a female canary, which was innocent of ever having laid an egg. She at once took charge of the young goldfinches, and reared them all. One of them mated with another member of the canary family, and produced four young mules. '. ■■' ■ V" . :,''.:■'■■:: ''''■'■;■