NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17139, 19 April 1919, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

BY J. DRUMMOND, F.L.S., F.Z.S.

In Ithe spring and summer the oystercatcher usually is found in pairs. In the autumn and winter it frequents sea beaches in flocks. On April 11 I saw three flocks on a wide, broad sandy beach near the mouth of the Waimakariri River, Pegasus Bay, Canterbury. The flocks were very large; Ithey numbered twentyfive, thirty and forty-five members. Most were paddling in the shallow water, searching for pipis, scattered thinly over the sand, or for other molluscs, and for marine crustaceans. Some sitting on the sand allowed the water to wash against their breasts and around their bodies. Rome ran with short, quick steps, like those of a soldier "donkey." One, which attracted special attention, stood for more than half an hour on one leg, with the other leg tucked up against its side. It did not move. It stood in that attitude so long that I thought it had lost a leg, until it left down the one that had been held up, and stood on it only for some minutes also. The oyster-catcher's plumage is greenish-black on, top and white below; its bill, its legs, and its eyes are crimson. These colours, contrasting with the hues of the sand and the water, compensate for the bird's somewhat, ungainly appearance when it stands in repose. Its great beauty is Been when a flock rises on the wing to seek fresh feeding grounds. White bands on the wings and white feathers over tho tail, in the act of flying makes a white W. If the sunlight touches Ithe underpays, they gleam like silver. Although there is no soaring, the flight is distinctly graceful, much more graceful than tho flight of pulls, for instance, and ft diverts attention from any other part of the landscape. The flock does not rise high tin the air. It straggles out into a long line, which, on a fine day, may be easily traced against a clear blue sky, even after the birds have gone a fairly long distance. j

After some of the flocks had departed, I examined pipis they left on the sand. The long, wedge-shaped bill evidently had been used to probe each pipi out of its bed, and then had been forced between the two valves and the mollusc inside had been eaten. In a few cases, the sides of the shells had been broken by powerful thrusts of the bills, used as pick-axes. There were "two or three black-headed gulls with every flock of oyster-catchers. Gulls relish pipis—they relish, indeed, every form of animal, dead or alive, found on the beach— these particular pulls seem to have been hangers-on, waiting to pick up crumbs that fell from the oyster-catchers' table. I did not, however, see them actually playing this ignoble part, nor did I see them interfere with the oyster-catchers or the oyster-catchers resent their presence. Whenever the oys-ter-catchers moved to another part of the beach, the gulls went with them. Sir Walter Buller watched a male oystercatcher pay his address to a female. The malo elevated his back and lowered his bill until it nearly touched the ground. He ran and strutted! around her with a loud quivering note, apparently expressing attachment- On another occasion, two males in this way made concentric circles around a female, which received tho rivals' attentions with an air of utter indifference. Sir Walter belli eve/1 that when a female's affections are won she reniains faithful to her mate, the pair continuing together perhaps for life, certainly long after the nesting season, with all its cares, las passed.

The oyster-catcher, by 'the way, does not catch oysters j it does not even habitually feed on them, Probably no oysteicatcher, on the - whole <oast-Jiiys of New Zealand ever has tasted an oyster. It was given this name by early navigator to this part of the world because it resembles, and ia closely related to, a bird of tho same name in Ithe Old Country. The name seems to have been used) first by a naturalist for birds he found in largo numbers on oyster banks in the rivers of Carolina. About 1401 years ago, an eminent English naturalist used it- for the shore-bird of the British Isles, now knowi as tho oyster-catcher, but formerly know as the sea-pie. The new name met wtt'i general approval. It has almost completely replaced tho old one, and the misnomer has been introduced into Australia and New Zealand, and established here. A suggestion lias been made that the original name should be retained in literature. It is too late, obviously, to make the alteration now, although the established name is misleading. "Sea-pie" has its equivalent in "pie-<le-mer" amongst tha French, and "meerelster" and "seelster'' amongst the Germans. In Australia the same bird is known popularly as the pied ovster-catcher or whits-breaked oystercatcher. An allied bird, known in New Zealand as the red-bill, in the Commonwealth, bears the name of black oystercatcher. It has the same shape and habits as the oyster-catcher, but is a'l black. In ornithological literature, the oyster catcher is Hsematopus iongirostrin. The former word means blood-foot, cr blood-red foot, and the latter long bill. Its Maori name is torca. Its range is from the Molucca Islands to Australia, NonZealand and the Chatham Islands. Its nest, is a slight depression in the sand in a river-bed or on a spit. There it lays a few pale yellow-brown eggs, spotted ard blotched with brownish-black. In the season, probably, the eggs and yoking may be found on an extensive spit at tlie mouth of the Waimakariri River, or close to the River Styx, and near many other beaches along the Dominion' 3 coast-line.

The white-eye sometimes, but infrequently, is called the rain bird, because it is believed that it makes its appearance immediately before rain. A few weeks ago, in danger of beingl overtaken by a thunder shower, I sat on some stones close to a Veronica shrub. I had hardly settled down when the shrub was ouickened into life by a flock of white-eyes. They went from branch to branch noiselessly; contrary to their practice, did not ut'ter taoir soft, suppressed notes. There was a pool of water six inches in diameter and almost three inches deep at the root of the Veronica. Every member of the flock, had a bathe in it. Three and even four sometimes went in together. Each placed its head under the surface, threw She water over its back, and ruffled its feathers until it was bedraggled. One, •which (lid not bathe, slaved on the too of the Veronica, and when it gave a chirp the whole flock took to the wing and vanished. None of the birds were disturbed by my presence, although I was within three fret of them. A correspondent refers to this bird as the blitrhty. This is a condensation of blight-bird. The title, white-eye is used in this column because it( is the name of the bird in Australia, from which country, as staled before, ill came to New Zealand very romantically about sixty-five years ago. |

Its neat little nest ofltei* is found in native and introduce? shrubs, notably uhe tea-tree. In a laurudinus hedge about six yards from l.he door of a house at Tarawera no few?r than twenty nests of this species were found at one time. This is unusual, as B.he nests generally are found singly, although many may be scattered in one district. Perhaps the strangest nest ever found in New Zealand was a white-eye's attached to a fern-stalk at 1 the edce of a boiling and steaming fumarole near the White Terrace before it was destroyed. The nect contained three lovely blue' eggs. The young, if hashed, were reared in a continuous vapour-bain. The white-eve is' erratic in its visits to different districts. Its appearance and disappearance are no!t regular like those of some other species. One thing is certain that it is plentiful—perhaps the most plentiful of the smaller native birds and that i!t is increasing. It has been explained b«fore that when its presence first was noted in New Zealand, the Maori* christened it tau-hou, stranger. They have eight other name; for ft. some referring to the conspicuous ring round its eyes, some to its mystericu< appearance, and some, apparently, imit.it ing jtd notes,