NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17270, 20 September 1919, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

BY J, DB.XJWX.OtSD, F.l* 3., ?.Z.S,

Mr. H. Guthrie-Smith, of Tutira, Hawke's Bay, the author of two delightfully fresh books on New Zealand birds— one on the birds of his run, the other on mutton-birds and other island birds of the south—returned last March, after doing five years' hospital work in England, to find that great changes had taken place in the bird life amongst -which he had spent many happy hours. Pukekos formerly were present at Tutira absolutely in their They now have " almost gone." There are oniv two or three pairs at the head of "Tutira Lake, and four pairs near the homestead. Mr. GuthrieSmith hopes that these will restock the run. He writes:"Flocks of pukekos ere one of its great beauties. I was proud of them. I have counted seventy in a single flock. Wekas also have disappeared They are heard at night, but that is practically all. The numbers of native larks have been reduced."

At first he concluded that the birdlife had been reduced by vermin. There has been no shooting on the run and no poisoning. There are rumours of weasels; he has seen two of them. But several facts make him hesitate in fixing the blame on vermin. One is that in the back country of Poverty Bay, which he has known intimately from 1900 on, there is the same strange dearth of wekas and also of kiwis—an extraordinary absence, as he states, for the conditions of both species are ideal— in the great area directly behind Whatatntn, thirty miles northwest of Gisborne, he heard in many years of only one weaseL The absence of wekas and kiwis from that part of New Zealand, consequently, cannot De attributed to that objectionable creature. Another fact that makes him hesitate in blaming it is that on Tutira there has been a remarkable in- , crease of the tomtit, which formerly was rare there._ When present it usually kept to small pieces of bush. Now, wherever a person goes on the run, up comes a tomtit.

If the weasel has destroyed the pukeko and the weka, Mr. Guthrie-Smith asks, why has it spared the tomtit, especially as the tom-tit builds its nest in places in which the weasel would be particularly' likely to search? He asks also if the weka and the pukeko have migrated from the run, and if so, why? He believes that the weka certainly does migrate, as in his time he has seen two weka irruptions, hundreds passing over the run while they followed a mouse migration. When he wrote, on August 20, the thrushes had laid their eggs about three weeks previously. The fact that they also have increased is accepted by him as further evidence against the weasel theory in explanation of the disappearance of native birds.

"As the welcome song of the shining cuckoo will be heaid again at the end of, or some time in this month," Mr W. W. Smith wrote from New Plymouth on September 1, "I have for several season's thought of asking you if any of your many correspondents ever mentioned that this bird, like its larger congener, the i long-tail species, sings and calls in the j night. It is occasionally,, heard in the | park here, singing in the dark, especially lon very dark nights. Chaffinches have , returned to nest here, and flocks of silverI eyes have arrived and regale themselves | at the flowers of the single-flowered camelj lias. The yellow-flowered kowhais are in I bloom, and the lovely tads are busy feed- \ ing on the ' nectar of these splendid ; flowers. Occasionally there are six to : eight* of these charming birds busy on I one, tree. , They are in the perfection of plumage and health at present."

Writing from the lighthouse at "Taiaroa Head, Otago Harbour, on August 29, Mr. A. Hansen describes that light station as perhaps the most beautiful in New Zealand. As he has been nearly forty years in the Dominion's lighthouse service, and has been stationed at many lighthouses, he is able to give an authoritative opinion. He says: " There is little in the way of natural history here. When I say « little,' I must not talk literally, as of course there are many things to observe, but not quite in my line. Here, as in many other places, the starling builds its nest in holes and crevices in cliffs that face the sea. I do not think that it is natural for the starling to build in these places, but the absence of forests and of hollow trees compels it to resort to them as. sites for its home. __ When I was stationed at Cape Saunders Lighthouse I made nesting-boxes out of empty oil cases and fastened them to telegraph posts, trees, fence posts, or simply placed them on the ground. All soon were occupied by starlings, a few by and one or two by Indian mynahs. These nesting boxes are made very easily. I strongly advise bird-lovers to make them, but care must be taken that they are watertight, and that the entrances do not face prevailing winds." A plan kindly supplied shows an elongated box with a V-shaped roof, a round hole in one side, and a rod for use as a perch immediately below the hole.

Mr. Hansen has Been at both Cape Saunders and Taiaroa a small, brownish bird whose identity has puzzled him. He had several opportunities to obtain specimens, but as the birds were so friendly and confiding he did not have the heart to kill them. They evidently are hedgesparrows, or, as they are known in England, from which country they were introduced to New Zealand, accentors. They have been mentioned in this column several times recently. They are strictly insectivorous, one of the best friends of the farmer, and one of the most useful birds brought to this country.

Dr. R. Fulton, of Dundin, who recently appealed for information as to the habit's of the white-head and the yeilow-head, the bush-canaries of settlers, has received several letters announcing the presence of these birds. When he was in Taranaki in 1917 Dr. Mac Knight drove him towards Manunui. They walked through a very good forest reserve. Dr. Fulton does not remember having seen any bird there, but Dr. Mac Knight told him that there were many in . a rimu forest further south. Other residents confirmed the statement, mentioning parrakeets, tuis, bellbirds, fantails, and white-heads as being very plentiful. Dr. Fulton's own observations in April, 1917, showed- that pied fantailswere plentiful on the banks of the War.ganud River; he saw hundreds in one day.

Mr. A. H. Brown has reported the white-head at Manunui, and Dr. Fulton asks if it, like its southern relative, the yellow-head, nests in the broadleaf, the dead matted leaves of the tree-fern, the ordinary tree-forks of the manuka, the tarata, the mapau and the mingimingi. The nesting habits of the yellow-hea d seem to vary according to locality and to the character of the vegetation. In Central Otago and Taieri Dr. Pulton's usual experience was that a broad-leaf has been selected, but this may be accounted for by the fact that having found & nest in a broadleaf, he always searched that plant when he saw it. He describes the yellowhead's eggs as beautiful reddish brown, at times purple, quite "on their own" as far as colour is concerned, and sayß that they cannot be confused with the e~gs of any other bird. Sir Walter Buller's description of them as " white, with small faint specks of red" does not correspond with eggs he has found.

I As the parasitical cuckoos have arrived in the Dominion, Dr. Fulton asks some of the thousands of persons who read this column to watch for strange eggs in the nests of white-heads, yellow-heads, robin.*, tomtits, grey warblers, sparrows, greenfinches, chaffinches, and other small birds, to refrain .'rom meddling with nests or eggs, but to make notes of observations and of dates. He states that the shining cuckoo's eggs are greenish-olive and small, about the same size as a hedge-sparrow's, and those of the long-tailed cuckoo are like a purplish mottled house-sparrow's egg, and axe more like the eggs of the white-head than any other eggs he knows, " They are really beautiful," he adds.