NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15056, 27 July 1912, Page 5 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

"k\'''<i fft J DRUMMOND, F.L.S., FJS.& twtfaxG experiences with wekas, Mr. ? J'Frost, of Waimauku, in the Kaipara •! : ~irt states that a friend of his, while *V^^Bthef««.t«tTeAr6ta,Wtbh ...'*rJto«t containing a watch and chain ** {he ground. . A weka, attracted cvi- ' dently by tl;o glitter, seized the chain and . a de off with it, dragging the waistcoat ■ , Lethe ground for mow than a hundred * rds At that distance the chain became -Lilt in a twig, and the weka could con. v a its booty no further. On another oc- "-■' *•„«■ Mr Frost's friend was having ' tanch in the forest * vhen weka * came • irtand and picked up scraps of bread he • *«r to them. One piece went into the : • b"» 0 the fire, at which the billy had L„ boiled, and a specially bold weka ,-Lped into the hot ashes, secured the tread darted out again with a loud screech and ran quickly into the bush. In a few minutes it was back again, looking for rW bread. Mr. Frost, like many other people who spend much time in the forests, has noted the iuquieitiveness of wekas. jßy imitating their cries he has attracted them to him. He stood quite still, and 'y,ey walked in a circle around him, making a close inspection for several minnlcs. Then, having satisfied their curiosity,' tliey scampered off with a short whistle. Their nests, which are made on the ground, often in a dry corner at the roots of an old tree, are lined with soft mess or dead leaves, and are very comfortable. Mr. Frost says that the cries usaallv begin as soon as the sun sets, and that they are heard mora frequently on moonlight nights than on dark nights.

Itfr. G. E. Jjeverne, of Eden Vale Road, Auckland, has come forward to champion the pheasant?, which agriculturists in the North Island regard as an unmitigated nuisance. They destroy young grass, pull on maize and eat it, and attack potatoes, carrots, beans, peas, barley, wheat and many kinds of fruit. One northern farmer ia a letter to me has described pheasants

as "the greatest curse settlers have to contend against," and another informs me that they are " ruination to the farmer and the gardener." Mr. Severne, who dia- ; closes the other side of the question, ad- '. mits that, many people treat pheasants .«w great pests, but he complains that these birds, while debited with all the bad in their accounts, are not given any credit for the good they do in destroying injur!* ■f ous insects. Three years ago, when he was on a shooting expedition, he shot soma pheasants, and cooked them at his - : camp. In a spirit of curiosity one day he counted the crickets in. the'crop of one bird, and found that the total was 150. The bird was shot early in. the day. and daring the afternoon and evening probably as -many more crickets would have been the farmer should regard the pheasants • eaten. Mr. Severne therefore ' ieels that s as an ally.

Mr. S. Hart, writing from the Cape Egmont Lighthouse, Taranaki, states that the harrier-hawk does not follow the sparrow-hawk's practice of risiDg above ■ „,a.pigeon it is chasing. When he was :. stationed at the Brothers' Rock, in Cook Strait, he sometimes watched the tactics of 3. visiting harrier and a tumbler pigeon that Jived on the rock. The-pigeon airways rose higher than the harrier. It did so by ordinary frying, but when it was about 100 feeet above its pursuer it began to tumble, with the swallow-like flight of the tumbler variety, down towards the harrier, which was disconcerted by this ~- manoeuvre, and flew away. Mr. Hart does not think that the harrier is suffi- , ciently swift to catch a tame pigeon, and that it would have a better chance of success with the native pigeon, which flies \ ; " slowly. It has often, however, shown that j ; it can ; catch sparrows if there is ho shelter for them. A small flock of sparrows lived on the Brothers' in Mr. Hart's time, subsisting partly on wheat they stole from fowls and partly on the results of the cook's occasional unsuccessful efforts. A hawk "raided" the flock, singled out ,one ; sparrow and kept it off the rock until it became exhausted. It then fell towards the water, but was caught by the hawk before it became immersed. * Raids were made also on dove-petrels as they flew from their burrows to the water, but they succeeded in reaching the water first, and when struck at dived below the surface.

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Some time ago, -when relating experiences in a small remnant of forest that still stands at Little River, on Banks Peninsula, Canterbury, I stated that introduced birds seldom, frequent native forests . m large numbers, as they prefer to live near the towns and villages. Mr. S. A.' Browne, of Clevedon, Auckland,-has written saying that his experiences have convinced* him that if introduced birds have occasion to go into native forests they will readily do so. In 1910 he felled a strip of bush along his back boundary. Two of bis neighbours felled patches of bush at the same time. When they burnt they , agreed to sow simultaneously, in order that the attentions of tho introduced birds towards the seeds and the young plants should be evenly distributed. He says that it might be possible for more sparrows and "such like" importations to have been in a certain place at a certain, time than there were on his piece of newly-sown land, but he doubts it. Therewas forest on each side of the area, and the birds did not hesitate to make use of it. Last winter he fenced the land. He felt every day that ho was attending a morning and afternoon concert. Sparrows made the clearing ring from about 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and the burden of song was taken up by white-eyes from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Mr. Browne finds many sparrows' nests every season in clumps of the large white tea-tree on his property. Starlings, he finds, favour hollow puriri trees and blue gums. Blackbirds and English thrushes frequent the forest, which contains fuchsia, karamu and other berries. Those birds use the scrubby tea-tree for nesting places. He has observed that sparrows do not despise the karamu, rnapau and other native food when their usual supplies are scarce. A few years ago there was a remarkable growth of Scotch thistles on his farm, and in the same year there was a. great invasion of caterpillars belonging to a species that infest those plants. On several occasions he saw flocks of birds rising from the thistles but they were too far away to enable him to identify them. One day he went to some trouble to obtain a closer view. He then found to his surprise that they were shining cuckoos.

"I was surprised t6 notice," writes Mr. -A. Bathgate, Mornington, Dunedin. "that ono of your correspondents recently said that the starling does not follow the plough. I cannot bo sure about it from recollections of my own observations, but my impression is that I have seen the starling doing so. Be that as it may, my object in writing is to tell you of an incident related to me a few years ago by a young fanner from tho Taferi. He "said that when ploughing there were very manv gulls and starlings on the freshly turned up earth and that on several occasions ho had noticed the starlings rise suddenly as if startled, and in a few minutes drop down again. This was repeated two or three times, till the gulls took fright and rose also, when the starlings immediately dropped to earth and busied themselves gathering grubs, while the gulls remained on the wing, circling round for some time before again alighting. Meanwhile the starlings ha'd the field to themselves. He said that tho gulls never rose the first time tho starlings did en masse, but when the starlings had risen with a whirr of wing* two or three times, the gulls became alarmed and rosa also. If the story Is trueand I have no reason to doubt it— docs it not indicate a remarkable degree of intelligence on the part of the starling? It also points to their ability to act , in concert, presumably at the command of a leader. But anybody who., has watched the evolutions of a flock of starlings, as they turn and wheel as simultaneously as a company of soldiers, must ba convinced that they obey some signal of command. I hope that the foregoing will interest you, and shall be glad if you can elicit any confirmation of the story."