NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15948, 19 June 1915, Page 5 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

BY J. DRUMMOND, r.t.s., F.Z.S. Dr. B. M. Moorhodse believes that the last quail house for New Zealand quail was kept on his father's sation at Shepherd s Bush, in the Rangitata Gorge, Canterbury, where lie spent his boyhood, it was more than forty-lve years ago. He then was eight years old. About a dozen birds, male and female, were imprisoned in the house, with the object of obtaining young ones and breeding the species. Some of the females laid egg.-, but these were eaten by rats, and no chicks were hatched. Rats were the principal cause of the final destruction of the captives. Dr. Moorhouse wa.s encouraged to go out on to the plains and secure specimens alive. He usually had a dog with him and found no difficulty in going close to the birds and catching them by hand. He has in his study an egg of the species, for which he says he would not accept £100. It is about an inch and a quarter long, and is a buff colour, splashed with greenish brown. There are two specimens of the birds, male and female, in Canterbury Museum, and Mrs. Potts, widow of Mr. T. H. Potts, the naturalist who lived in Governor's Bay for many years, has a pair at her residence in Victoria Street. Mr. Potts, in some of his recorded observations, states that the quail, in confinement, thrived well >n soaked bread, different kinds of grain and the larva* of insects. The male, lie says, was not an attentive mat 1 at feeding times, and, whe.i several were kept in the same enclosure, there were constant bickerings, but actual hostilities did not break out. The eggs required twenty-one day's incubation. and the chicks were very active as soon as they emerged from the shell.

The redpoll is usually tame and friendly, but Mr. F. G. Sparrow tells mo that in the Takaka district, Nelson, ho has found it to bo very shy. Some observers, by the way, are puzzled when they see birds having the body plumage of the redpoll, but no carmine on the top of the head or rose-red on the breast, i submitted this point to Mr. T. 11. Jones, wiio conducts a bird fancier' business 111 Manchester Street, Christchurcli, and he told me that these are young redpolls. The splashes of brilliant colour, which relieve the redpoll's somewhat sombre appearand-, do not appear until the adult stage is reached. -Mr. Clouston and I saw a flock of young in the tops of some beech trees on the Gouland Downs, and noted the complete al sence of briglio colours. The female shares with the male the carmine crown, but her plumage is less bright than his. and sometimes she lacks any crimson 011 the breast. In addition, she is slightly smaller. The redpoll's habits seem to in exactly the same in New Zealand as it' the Old Country. It was introduced here 47 years ago. For a long time it was local in distribution, but now has spread far and wide, even into the sub-alpine regions. At Home, it is seen more frequently in the northern parts of the United Kingdom than in the south. It is, in fact, more Scottish than English, and finds the birch woods of Scotland, a suitable place of abode in the nesting season.

"Some time ago a number of your correspondents engaged in a desultory discussion on the assumption that eels, as a general rule, resort to the sea to breed," the Rev. W. J. FUiott writes from Ashburton. " 1 was one of those opposed to the theory, and in reply to me several promised to supply evidence of a tangible and convincing kind. lam a little alraid [ that the protracted delay will dull the interest aroused in the subject, as the evidence against me is slow in coming. I am sure that it would be of interest. to those of us who are making investigations if some of your readers with any knowledge of the supposed origin -and habits of whitebait would communicate it to your column. These things still puzzle me. Where do they come from.?,' Do they arrive at a certain stage in a brief existence and then die ? Or do they > develop into a species, of fish whose placo ' in the great and manifold shoal has not yet been fixed ? I have seen whitebait in some extraordinary places. Over twenty years ago, when 1 was making investiga- • lions at the upper reaches of the Raglan Harbour, I found a large number of whitebait in a large basinlike hole in a mass of. 1 rocks. I was able to fill a small bucket ' nearly full with them. A small stream of water was falling down into the hole, < but-for the life of me, I could not see' where the whitebait had come .from, and how they had ; reached the refuge,' because the hole I refer to had 110 apparent ••.» outlet. I may say that I have never been ablo to detect the wliitebait returning again at any time towards the sea. I hope' that some of your readers will tell u# something concerning the mysterious whitebait." Many years ' ago, Sir .James ; Hector conducted experiments in Welling- . ton, arid came to the conclusion that the whitebait is a distinct species, and not the, fry, or young, of any other fish. . His opinion now is generally accepted. -

Writing from Taumaraunui, at the end" of March, Mr. J. H. Bennett states that v lie visited Bristol, England, in July last 1 year, and was surprised to ! see in the museum there two specimens , of the tuatara reptile, alive. A card on the case stated that they had come from the Bay. of Plenty, New. Zealand, the only place % in the world where they arc found. They . looked very old, and, Mr. Bennett thought ;" very wise,, but: ho was told they were only a few years old. He was surprised , to , see live specimens in a museum, but' was delighted with live specimens of wildtflowers, exhibited in s the Bristol museum by an enthusiastic lady,' botanist, day by .« day. Lovers of wild flowers vie with one another in sending her the rarest and ~ earliest species. 'in ' bis rambles,' Mr. Bennett found a solitary specimen, of hen* - bane. It was growing on the sandy bank , of the Severn, between Avonmouth and the Severn Tunnel. Two enthusiastic.. botanists, both over 60 years of age, had • never seen it previously, and another, al- £ so over 60, had seen it only once pre- , viously, when he was a- boy of 14, at Bridgewater, in Somersetshire. It is a poisonous herb, belonging to the same order as the potato ana the tobacco plant, and is used in medicine on account of its narcotic properties. It has been naturalised in the, Wellington district, where it was accidentally introduced, but, apparently,' has not spread" into other districts in this Dominion.