NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13967, 28 September 1918, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

BY J. DECiniOND, F.L.S., F.Z.S. Tnß skin of a stoimy petrel has been sent to me by an anonymous correspondent at Whangarei. He found it washed up on the beach north of that town. Its prevailing colour is sooty black, which extends from, its bill to its legs and feet, but it has white feathers on the wing and over the tail. It is commonly known as Wilson's stormy petrel, and in bird literature it beam a pretty and euphonious title, Ocosnites ocearicus. It is only one of four distinct species of stormy petrels recorded in New Zealand seas. They aretho smallest members of the petrel family, and are the smallest birds with webbed feet. Wilson's 3tormy petrel is not as plentiful in New Zealand seas as some of the allied species, but it is one of the commonest eea-birds in the seas around Australian coasts, and is a. cosmopolitan. An Australian observer states that when flying it is very active; it keeps its wings expanded and also uses its feet for pattering the surface of the water, with its wings extended downwards and its head inclined downwards, while it gathers food that may lie on the water. There is no record of this child of tho ocean having made its home in any part of New Zealand. It lays a white egg with many pinkish dots, which sometimes are all at one end. Some writers use the title storm petrols for these birds. This is correct, but stormy petrels is an old, eanctioned, and well-understood title, which 1 will not easily be replaced. Charles Wateri ton, an English naturalist, who described j his wanderings in South America, referred with a pleasant fancy to this bird. He I called it the little harbinger of storms, and said that it must have been hatched in bolus's cave among a clutch of squalls and tempests, as whenever they wont out j upon tho ocean it continued to be- a member of the party. N

Mr. J. Pattison, writing from Moana, on Lake Brunner, Westland, one of the most picturesque places in New Zealand, Btates that in the Kopara district and some parts of South Westland, during the recent severe snowstorms, native pigeons went down from the for;sts and settled in grass paddocks, where they fed on the leaves of the white clover. Mr. Pattison adds that when the miro and white pine and other berries are not in season pigeons subsist on the small berries of ether native trees whose leaves, in size and .'hape, do not differ greatly from the leaf of the clover. Mr. Pattison was pleasantly surprised a few Jays ago when lie was told by a reliable observer that the bittern, in the Kopara district and the district surrounding Lake Haupiri, are not only holding their own, but actually increasing. A short time ago a settler there found a young bittern, and set it at liberty again. In the Karamea district, north of Westport, also, it is reported the bittern is fairly plentiful.

bittern is rainy pienwui. Thirty years ago Mr. W. W. Smith of New Plymouth, who had seen most of the great forest lands of New Zealand, found the vegetation on the shores of Lake Brunner to be in greater profusion and | perfection than in any other district with I which he was acquainted. He believed | that in luxuriance it rivalled the forests of i tropical America. Ho found the homes of ! both the kakapo and kiwi in the rich i groves of tree-ferns, and in the saplings lof taller gmvrth and the branches of towering timoer trees many native birds ' revelled and enlivened the forests all day i long with rich and varied notes. Among the birds of the district, Mr. Smith noted the morepork, the kaka, the kea, the kakapo, the kiwi, the two native cuckoos, the tui, the bell-bird, the white-eye, the yellow-head, the grey warbler, the rifleman wren, the bush wren, the robin, tho kingfisher, the tomtit, the two fantails, tho native thrush, the native crow, the native pigeon, the saddleback, the whito ' heron, the blue heron, the bittern, the • little bittern, the blue duck, the little teal, the crested grebe, the dabchick, the wekas, the black stilt, the white-headed stilt, the pukeko, the shags, and several species of sea-birds. It would b* interesting to know how many of these species now survive in the district. Mr. Smith's visit to Westland in 1888, by the way, convinced him that the Notornis probably existed in swampy parts of the forests or sedgy lagoons some distance inland on. southern rivers of the Westland Province.

During a visit to Rangitoto Island this month, Mr. J. 0. Pcynter, of Devonport, was surprised at the absence of bird-life. lie did not see even a fantail. He saw a few berry-bearing trees, and mentions one he knew in Nelson as the parrakeet berry. Wallabies and opossums have been placed on the island. He saw signs of the latter, but they seemed to be somewhat old. He also saw signs of rabbits. He suggests that grass should be sown in an area of good soil, near the summit, in order to add to the food supplies of animals on the island, and names Angora goats as desir able additions to the fauna, because they would add to the attractions for visitors. There is a steady pull for two miles to the summit, but the journey may be made slowly with four or five rests, and refreshments are supplied at a tea kiosk. The view includes Motutapu, Tiri, Motuihi, and Brown'* Island, and all the bays for miles aroudd.

Mr. J. B. Armstrong, 10, Burlington St, Sydenham, Christchureh, reports that a few patches of the comfrey plant, used for wounds, grow close to the roadsides at Marshland, notably among grass on Hill's Road, slightly north of Brigg's Road. Soveral varieties of the plant once grew in the Christchureh Botanic Gardens, but they seem to have disappeared from there.

A correspondent at Ponsonby, whose house is infested with ants, states that he is ab!o to keep the insects under by using a teasnoonful of powdered borax, a dessertspoonful of golden syrup, honey, or icing sugar, mixed with about two tablespoons oi hot water, which should be stirred until the ingredients are dissolved. The mixture should be placed in shallow dishes or the lids of tins, which should bo set in places visited by the ants. They come in hundreds to drink the sweet liquid and are poisoned. The correspondent has tried many kinds of insect powders, but finds that they lose their strength and that the ants then go through them as if they were dust.