NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18089, 13 May 1922, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

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

Crested grebes, which are among the best diving birds in New Zealand, are fairly plentiful on Lake lanthe, South Westland, but their nests are so well hidden that many days' search near the banks of the lake, probably, would fail to disclose them. Mr. Stewart Sutherland had a disappointing search for the greenish white or yellowish brown eggs of that species on Lake Mavora, a short distance inland from Mossburn, Southland, Ho spent two weeks on the quest. Ho saw at least three pairs of crested grebes and watched them very closely, but had no luck in regard to either nests or eggs,

except that he found one old nest. Several days' search in a boat in the beautiful bays of Lake lantho, where raupo grows rank, and the branches of fallen trees in the water supply suitable nesting places, gave the same results. On Lake Guyon, which lies in a basin under the Spencer Mountains, in the southern part of the Nelson province, crested grebes make their nests near the banks. Pond weeds, which graw in the lake, aro need mostly in building the nests. The weedß are dived for, and aro massed until the nests are raised slightly above tho surface of the water.

Both malo and female take part in the work of incubation. Most of it seems to be done by the female, who is relieved by tho male when she leaves tho nest to obtain food. The crested grebe's diving powers have led to a belief, often affirmed on the West Coast, that when one is fired at and it sees the smoke or hears tho report, it dives, before the bullet or tho shot reaches it. Without exaggeration, members of the species divo amazingly quick, and stay under the surface for a ion? time. Black swans' nests are found more easilv than crested grebes' nests on Lake lantiie, because they are not so well hidden, and are larger. They are made solidly of pieces of raupo leaves, and twigs six inches long. Each nest is about three feet long and two feeit broad. The top is about a foot above the surface, and the eggs are laid in a slight hollow. The site is among raupo or rushes near the banks, in shallow water, on which the nest floats.

" Great pines in the forest close to my place overtop all the introduced trees, and starlings settle on the highest branches absolutely in thousands," Mr. O. Caldweil wrote from Apiti, Wellington Province, on. April 16. '' One day last year, about 3 p.m., they came from every quarter, until the pines were covered with them. The chattering no:ise they made was wonderful. They remained there for some time. Then one section left the j trees and circled and settled. After fur- j ther chattering, another section flew off j and circled and settled again. After a' third section had gone through the same performance, there was a great deal erf noise. When it was finished, all the starlinga rose together, and away they went due north, a direction they never had taken before. They have not returned, and we have lost much wild music." Mr. Caldwell's ho'ise is surrounded thickly by many species of trees, and by shrubs and | hedges, and his " little friends," as he I calls them, find ample shelter in a somewhat cold climate. As they are not' mcrlested, they are very tame. Among them are song-thrushes, blackbirds, sparrows, grey linnets, fantails, tuis, white eyes, tomtits, morepork owls, goldfinches, yellow hammers, redpoles, hedge sparrows, ground larks, a few Australian magpies and grey ducks, and an occasional sparrow hawk. They have watched Mr. Caldwell digging and delving for some twentyfive years. With a surveyor's experience behind him, he selects the TangarakauValley, near Stratford, Taranaki, _as tfie most beautiful place of its kind in New Zealand. " I support Miss M. Wilkinson's opinion as to its grandeur," he writes. " I believe that it is one of the best works of Nature. I rode through it one beautiful summer morning. Some of its cliffs are perpendicular, and about 800 feet high. They are clothed with many species of shrubs, ferns, lianes and mosses, many of which live in seams that occur at intervals on the faces. The Tangarakau R-iver is in parts a, torrent. The Toad runs close to it. A ride along the road when the plants are in bloom is delightful. The sweetest sona;s of birds are heard all the time as the traveller moves on."

The first living Notornis -was caught in 1849, the second in the same year, the third thirty years later, and the fourth and final one nineteen years later still, in 1898, twenty-four years ago. The species occupies a prominent position in Lord Rothschild's " Extinct Birds," but _it hardly is safe to prophesy the extinction of a bird in the wild and unfrequented country in which the four specimens of the Notornis were found, and the report of a fifth specimen may be received at anv time. In these days of protection, it will belong to the Government, not to the person who finds it. The Government paid £500 for the fourth specimen, now in the Otago Museum. It will not be obliged to pay anything for the fifth specimen. The finder, however, will have some claim to reward, if not a legal one. The eeg of the Notornis, which is rarer oven than the egg of the great auk—it is in fact, absolutely unknown —will be a more important discovery, than the fifth specimen itself. Mr. R. Stuart Sutherland, who lived far more than three years at Puvsegur Point Lighthouse, in the Notornis' country, b 3 * expressed a conviction that the species is not extinct. Soon before he left Puysegur for Cape Foulwind, last year, he saw an tho road footprints firmly impressed in the ground. When measured, they were found to bo about an inch longer than those of a lareo male weka. W 7 here the bird had halted, the feet were side by side, and about 24 inrhos apart. Mr. Sutherland points out that a weka. when standing, always has one foot partly on ton of the other and sliehtly in advance of it. A clone search of the. place failed- to discover the bird that had left the footprints.

Mr. J. G. Blackie has -written from Pokere, near Whangarci, asking if any readers of this column can inform him where ho can find or ohtain specimens of a native plant, Veronica ligustifolia. "I believe that it grows in the Whangarei district only," ho writes, " but I have not been able to locate it. Its leaves are larger and narrower than those of our Koromiko and the flower spikes are on the ends of the leaf branches. It grows three or four feet high. Its stems are dark brown or almost black and two friends of mine in Otago are faying to prooaeato members of the Veronica family in "Now Zealand in order to supply shrubs for the graves of New Zealand soldiers at the battlefields. If anybody can help in locating the ligustifolia, which is needed to complete the collection, they will advance- a worthy object." The species, originally, was discovered by Allan Cunnincham. in the Bay of Islands, about 85 years ago. The Rev. W. Colenso also found it there, and Mr. T. F. Crceseman, curator of the Auckland Museum, has reported it from the North Cape district.

" I think that the statement that humble bees injure broad beans and other beans is unfounded," Mr. B. Martin Guhb wrote from Port Albert. " Humble bees, no doubt, perforate the calyx in order to get the nectar and if a thousand small bean pods tire examined, it will be found that thero are holes in almost every calyx, but. this only proves that humble bees do not prevent the beans from setting. I have seen honey bees doing the same thing. I do not'know if either species of bee attack other papilionacious flowers in the same way. But this is not evidence that this method of getting the nectar Bteril-tos the flower."