NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15551, 7 March 1914, Page 5 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

BT JAMES DBUMHOKD, P.L.3., y.Z.®, Lieutenant-Colonel H. Boscawen has kindly supplied for this column a report on a visit he made to the Great Barries Island a short time ago, and he has added to his letter a short note that is specially interesting because it deals with the strange little native frog of New Zealand. Liopelma Hochstetteri, which is seldom found in these days, and has never been recorded outside of a restricted area of the Auckland Province. Hi? letter is dated January 30, and he states that during the previous week he saw this creature, New Zealand's only amphibian, in the forests of the Coromandel Peninsula. "If a person knows how to look for it," he says, " it will ba proved to be not uncommon. In damp moss, three or four small, grape like balls sometimes may be found, and when these ara i held lip to the light a small frog may ba seen moving about in the water inside." ' Colonel Boscawen is a student of natural history, and on the Great Barrier he sawmore than might be seen by other visitors. He was surprised to make the acquaintance there of a large number of native birds 1 seldom seen on the mainland now. He 'believes that they are the oVerflo.w from the Little Barrier Island, which is a sanctuary, and is only 12 miles away. Tuis, parrakeets, kakas, pigeons and the small forest birds are plentiful. In the centre of the island, in the forest around Mount Hobson, there are a few bellbirds. The bays abound with fisl, and their shores, conse* quently, are a sta-birds' paradise. Sitting on a rock early one morning, he watched: gannets fishing alongside, closing their wings and coming down with a rush within' a few yards of him. He noted that, in spite of skill and experience, they often failed to catch their fish, and drew a blank* Several species of petrels nest in the rocks near the sea and in the highland in the interior. There is one large shaggery in . pohutukawa treis. Most of the shags ara the pied species. The young birds had left their nests at the time of his visit, and they could be seen in hundreds. The little petrels, commonly called Mother Carey's chickens, nest on a smaller island close to the Great Barrier. They are seldom found nesting, but evidently they come from long distances to particular nesting-places. Imported birds are conspicuous by their absence. There are no pheasants, very few . brown quail, black-" birds, and sparrows, and an occasional chaffinch.

Sharks, evidently, are very plentiful in the waters, and Colonel Boscawen sow .7 many flying-fish, with a snout like that of. a mullet. ■ They rose singly, not in droves like the fiying-fish he has seen in the West Indies. The vegetation is similar to that , at Moehau, on the mainland of Coromahdel. He saw on the island the stoutest manuka he has ever seen. There •were large trees of that plant 50ft high , before' branching. The pohutukawa, which." flowered late this year, was at its. best ' while he was on the island. There were, bees everywhere. . He . noticed that the., pohutukawa honey .was , white . and the .. rewarewa honey brown, and he -saw many, '~ large combs, of honey half, white and half * brown. Some .of the bees were makings wax and gathering pollen from the rib-.' Sass and other species of grass, but other 1 es were only gathering honey. The settlers take advantage of the bees' presence and send ; large-quantities of honey • to the market. The land : generally •" is'' poor, and is fit for only sheep. The mut~" - i jSi, on' account of the salt' in the grass from the spray, is excellent. There are a " few fairly, good flats,' notably the Kaitoki Valley, which when dug over and cultivated will grow anything. ■ - The'-inhabi- -y tants, who number about 500, live-in the' : bays on the coast. - The "great" 3 forest ' around Mount Hobson, therefore, is undis-" " turbid.;: They are' kindly/ hospitable -petK 1 .pie, and always-.', are-'';pleased - t6- -se«" : ' Strangers.: •. •, / r.:"-' :i Most of Mr. W. Townson's contributions to this column have dealt with plant-life, ' but he has also sent notes on animal life/' and -to these he has added a few more' " Writing - from' ; Pukekohe, in the Auckland, district, he states that, when he was a boy ' " he came ; to„the conclusion that r fish wsi^' . almoet.insensible/.to .pain, and • that" when he. was angling ,on . the River Leith, la 1 Scotland,-he had. .many opportunities of" " confirming this opinion. It was a common-" occurrence, - when: fishing "with the " fly, to ! * :: hook, cast after/ cast, * a ydurig called parr ; in thatr ' Whitih'liMglefs''' were; obliged,: .under, a heavv*penaity 'tOT"" throw back r into the ' stream. - ;At time? they became .'a great' nuisance'; interfering " considerably with designs upon the trait/ '' ami so were not always removed "from the : > hook very carefully. He recorded in his ' notes that on one occasion one of "these V'"* juvenile offenders gorged his- fly, ' cansing 1 i him some trouble •in freeing it, • during ' which process its mouth was bad ' " lacerated. It might be expected that 'the " ' fish would be. in trouble, and that it would lie low whilst repairs were' ef^cted^'b'«t not so. At his castj he- rose and """ hooked a fish, reeling in .the' identical" &--- mon parr which a short time before" he had "'" thrown back into.the river, badly wounded" * On a holiday excursion, when . Ambleside, at-the head -of - -Windermere-- J Lake, a trout rose at his' fry, %ot"- hooked---" behind the gill, and was landed. ' It "wa£ T about a quarter of a pound in weight;-and'' upon picking it up he was surprised-to find} that it' had -two minnows i wedged firmly' between its jaws. The trout had evidently}"made a very successful rush into a' shoal' ' of minnows, and, seizing two at once, tail l on, they had jammed just amidships m ;- their captor's jaws. The , question; suggested itself to him, seeing that the trout i| mouth was completely out of action, whai ' could it have done under the circumstances" with his fly? . ; .V J

Another of Mr. Townson's notes records - '' an interesting sight he saw. when living in : Wellington some years ago.. A' fellow; lodger was employed in the engineroom of, , he thinks, the Thorndon Freezing WferksAfter breakfast one morning his friend asked'him to go down to the works to see what he described as a "feline curiosity." " Arriving at the engineroom Mr. Townson was taken to a box in a corner near one of the engines, in which- there was a cat suckling a couple. of young . rats, ,-i and - purring contentedly. It seemed that the - cat had had her.kittens drowned by one of the hands 'a day or two previously, '? r much to her distress, and during some cleaning operations in the yard a large case had been overturned, disclosing a nest of. young rats, upon which ' she ■ at oncepounced. The cat had a local reputation = as a ratter, and the men were not surprised to see her carrying off the rats, but were very much surprised to see her . ■ deposit them carefully m her box and - commence to mother them. She had dis- . charged the duties of foster-mother for sonw days when Mr. Townson saw her, but lie has no record of the rats' ultimate - end. It seemed to him at the time that the chief danger they had to fear was from the cat's afternoon callers, to whom the position could not be explained.