NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17294, 18 October 1919, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

B* J. DRUKMOND, F.L.3., F.Z-ft, A pied fantail is rearing a family in a large native beech tree in the public- * gardens. The nest is in a fork near the

end of a branch about 12ft long, and i some 10ft above th e ground. The email leaves of the beech do not give much * cover, and the site is open and somewhat exposed. The entrance to the propagating '< house is only a few yards away. Horses and carts and people pass close to the - nest. It is neat and compact, made of moss, dried leaves and small pieces of ' ■wood, on the general plan favoured by fantails in all parts of the Dominion. The i bottom has been extended, and runs to a point, giving the nest exteriorly a different appearance from that of other nests of the species. It was finished in the middle of September. The four white eggs, spotted with brownish-grey at the larger end, should be hatched later on. The fantail is not molested, and any interference with the nest is against the strictest rules of the gardens. Its presence there brings to mind the tragic result of an experiment by Sir Waiter Boiler. He caught a female pied fantail on her nest, which contained four unfledged young. He placed Ihe captive in a cage with the nest and the young. She refused to take food, and in her rage pecked the young to death. Mr. W. W. Smith, curator of Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, reports that the shining cuckoo arrived there on September 27, and Mr. S. Hill wrote from Owhango, in the King Country, on September 30:"To-day the shining cuckoo was heard here, 190 "miles south of Auckland. Members of the species are almost plentiful here through the summer. They are seen most frequently near creeks and the Whakapapa River. One day, at the end of last summer, I saw seven or eight on the ground feeding together near some scrub. Shining cuckoos mav use their whistling notes at night in order that they may keep together. The harsh screams of long-tailed cuckoos, repeated at intervals of a few seconds, by both males and females, on the wing, or when perching or sitting, would be an easy means of keeping members of this species in touch with one another." Mr. H. Anderson, Bright Street, Gisborne, has asked if readers of this column have noted that harrier hawks, when descending to attack prey, always have their heads to the wind, and that, when they have seized a mouse or a small bird, they fly off with it in the same way. This habit was noted by the Maoris when they constructed snares for hawks. A manuka rod, about Bft 'ong, with a prong at the top, was erected at a place frequented by hawks. A bait was placed between the prongs, and a noose was arranged on the windward side, and a hawk which took the bait was caught as it flew off. Usually both wings were caught by the noose. Fowling, once a highly developed art in New Zealand, probably has completely I disappeared. Even in the Urewera Counj try, where some of the Maori gods are | venerated and some of the myths are believed, fowling has given place to the quicker and surer destruction by the gun. In the early "fifties," when a Maori was not allowed to use more than one pound of gunpowder in a year, and when guns were costly, the pattern of hawk-snare, just mentioned, was fairly common in parts of the North Auckland district.

Many years ago, the late Mr. R. H. Matthews, -when travelling by an old Maori track over the western shoulder of Miiunga-tanlhna, met a party of Maoris who had been spearing wood-pigeons. Each member of the party had pigeons, wrapped in nikau leaves, slung round him. There was not a gun amongst them. At the Mangamuka River he saw a line stretched tightly along the edge of the water and covered from end to end with nooses. He was told that they were pigeon-snares, and that pigeons, after eating miro berries, which made them very thirsty, would fly down to the water and be caught. Bellbirds, fantails, tom-tits, robins, and other small birds were attracted by a peeping sound, imitating an alarm note, made by a leaf in the fowler's mouth. They alighted on a slanting rod, and were killed by a rapid stroke of a stick, used by the concealed fowler. In this way, a kitful of bellbirds was taken by an expert _ fowler in one day.

Native larks now should be busy in all parts of the Dominion with their domestic affairs. Their busy season extends from the present month to March. It is believed that some of the pairs at least rear two broods in one season. There is no record of a native lark's nest having been found off the ground. Sometimes advantage is taken of the shelter of a tussock, but it is not unusual for a pair to place the dry grass and roots used for the nest in a depression caused by a horse's hoof. The hoof-marks of cattle seem to be too small for the purpose. The eggs usually are greyish-white, speckled with greyish - brown, but the tints vary greatly; the speckles sometimes are reddish and purplish-brown. Flocks of native larks will be seen until, perhaps the second week in March. It is believed that on the approach of winter they pair off and remain in pairs until the courting season comes again, when they congregate in flocks once more. Although they shun the large towns, they are not uncommon in villages and on farms, and they are one of the delights of certain country roads and paths, where they go in advance of travellers, flying for short distances ahead and then alighting for. a few minutes, to make another short flight.

Writing from Petane, Hawke's Bay, on October 6, Mr. J. Pattison, who, in his travels up and down the Dominion, makes observations of bird life, states that some species are fairlv plentiful on the lagoons and swamps of that district. He had been there slightly more than a week, and had seen the following native birds: Grey duck (plentiful), paradise duck, brown duck, pied stilt, .pectoral rail, pukeko, black shag, kingfisher (plentiful), and pied fantail. He was told that New Zealand quail is present in the Petane district and towards Waikato, and a resident of Urenui, North Taranaki, assured him that the species is plentiful about Waitara, and that he had flushed as many as sixty and a hundred at a time. The species, almost without doubt, is the Australian quail, sometimes called the swamp quail, which was introduced into several districts in this country about forty years ago. It seems to be more successful in the North Island than in the South Island. As a matter of fact, it has been too successful for growers of small fruit. Mr. W. E. Draper, of Waerenga, on the Waikato River, writing some years ago, told me that both the Australian quail and the Californian quail were a serious menace to his strawberries. "I cann>t offer strawberries for sale with a piece pecked out of the sides," he complained, " and it does not suit me to find the ground between the rows sprinkled with half-ripe berries bitten off. The birds perambulate a row of vines, and completely destroy every grape on a row rive or six chains long. When I sow a field of clover, the soil is scratched and the seed is eaten. If a stop is not put to the increase of these pests no man in his sober senses will embark in fruitgrowing in any district infested by them." Mr. Pattison is not certain that the brown duck is not identical with the red teal of Otago and the brown teal of Canterbury. The male birds seen by him at Petane have a ring of light-coloured feathers around their neck. This he has not seen on the red teal, which were very plentiful and tame in Southland in the earlv days. Members of the species are labelled " red teal" in Otago Museum and •' brown duck" in the Dominion Museum' Wellington. He is inclined to believe that the brown duck is a separate species from the red teal, or that mere, are at i least differences. J