NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18345, 10 March 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

BIRDS IN A WONDERFUL VALLEY.

BY J. DBUMMOND, F.L.S., T.Z.B.

The romantic and majestic country j in North-west Otago, bo alluring to people who love the valleys and the mountains, so little known to New Zealanders, is the subject of a letter from Dr. D. A. Bathgate, of Hauraki Plains. He spent two summer holiday seasons in camp at the head of the Matukituki River, which drains a small part of the great southern mountain chain, including Mounts Aspiring, Tyndall, Barff, Bevan and other peaks, with their attendant glaciers and snowfields. After a comparatively short course, it empties itself into the southern end of Lake Wanaka, almost opposite Pembroke, "Its course," Dr. Bathgate writes, "is typical of the courses of a hundred other snow-fed, eastward-flowing rivers. The sides of the mountains ana the upper paws of the valley are clothed in dense beech forests. The valley, lower down, opens out into flats, often swampy, covered with tussock and Wild Irishman. Any attempt by me to describe the beauties of this lonely mountain valley would b© futile; a life-time would be all too short to explore and admire its grandeur. Mrs. Alice Morland, in 'Through South Westland,' describes a few days stay in the Western Matukituki. I wish to recommend this book to all who are interested in our country's beauties. As is the case all too often it is left to the overseas visitor to appreciate and describe the matchless scenic attractions unheeded by us at our doors."

Dr. Bathgate's object is to record observations of birds in that wonderful region. He writes: "On our tramp up the valley, the first sign of bird-life was a family of paradise ducks, father, mother and ten little ones. The male gallantly threw himself down a few yards in front of us, and set up a series of heart-rending screeches while he floundered and flapped ahead with a pretended broken wing. The female in the meantime quickly led her little ones to cover in the reeds of a marshy swamp. She came out later to help the male to lure us from the hidden young. The same performance was given for our benefit a hundred times. The acting of those birds is not far short of marvellous. Two shepherd's dogs, which accompanied us part of the way, fell for it, as the Americans say, every time. The incidents were like this: Round a bend in the valley, or over a rise, we see a family party of ducks. ■ Away go the dogs with a rush, as if they heard the dinnerbell ringing; and in front of them down tumbles a male duck, quacking and threshing about on the ground, a helpless cripple he would have them believe. The dogs look at each other, and we almost hear them say 'Our luck in this time.' They advance stealthily, one on each side, and make a quick rush to finish off their victim; but the duck, strange to say, is ten yards off, still quacking and dragging | a wing.

"Then the stalk begins and the chase continues by stages quite aw &y from where the young are hidden. The dogs first look foolish, then impatient, and finally throw discretion to the wind and rush pell-mell after the male, which rises feet above the ground, with the dogs barking, yelping and bumping each other below him. With a derisive squawk he wheels up and away, leaving the dogs staring foolishly or working off their tempers on each other, for dogs, like human beings, do not like to be held up to ridicule. When the next family of ducks appear they go over the whole performance' again;.l suppose that they live in hopes that some day they will discover a duck with a real physical disability."

Another note by Dr. Bathgate, in contrast with his notes on the paradise ducks, is a sad one. It deals .with a bird which, in spite of an unfortunate abnormal taste, is one of the most playful, friendly, affectionate, and lovable birds in; the world. "Keas," he writes, "were the most attractive birds we saw. Their numbers decreased considerably ' between my two visits. Soon beforo my last visit two keahunters had gone amongst the hapless outlaws, and in six weeks had collected no fewer than ninety bills, to the tune of 7s 6d for each bill, the price now given by sheepowners in the Lake district. The massacre of the keas is abhorrent to birdlovers, but I suppose that it cannot be considered aa purposeless as the destruction of some other native birds, or the slaughter committed by Sir Walter Buller, for instance, in his huia hunts."

Many terns, nesting on the stones of the river-bed, became aggressive when their nesting-places were approached, and in large numbers flew alarmingly close to the intruders' faces and heads, wheeling and screaming around. All the members of the party except one had crossed the river on horseback. All the terns in that part of the valley seemed to consider it their duty to gather and molest him. His only weapon was a small axe, which he wielded in order to keep them off, while the other members of the party, on the other shore, cheered. At times he was hidden except his legs, by a bellowing cloud of screaming terns. One tern was Been with a worm Hanging from its bill, probably food for its young. As long as it was watched, it kept on the wing, flying in circles and occasionally dipping down to the river to drag the worm in the water, to keep it fresh, apparently.

The head of a colour variety of the kaka, a species that seems to be strangely susceptible to brilliant colour variations, was seen by Dr. Bathgate. This, individual had been killed in mistake for a kea by a boy. The head was "exquisitely coloured in canary yellow with a contrasting edging of pale blue." Wekaa, once plentiful, have disappeared from the valley "down the road leading to extinction.' The har-rier-hawk is common lower down. A few grey ducks were seen. One pair had a nest in the fork of a rimu forty or fifty feet off the ground and a fair distance from the river. A settler in the valley stated that a pair of grey ducks nested in the same place previously, and that the young were taken from the nest to the river on their parents' backs. Pied and black oyster-catchers, which were raising families on the river-bed, adopted the same protective tactics as the paradise ducks, but were more ludicrous. The letter concludes: "The bush seemed to be almost empty of birds, except for a few stray wood-pigeons, bell-birds, tomtits, fantails and riflemen. Ail our birds apparently, are following hard on the tracks of species already extinct. What can we do to save them ?

Mrs. R. E. Gard, Silverstream, Heretaunga states that she has tried many methods of preventing humble bees from destroying flowers of the broad beans in her gnrden. The best method she has discovered is to sprinkle ordinary table pepper on the flowers at night; when the bees find that pepper has been used, they do not return, fene has tried the same method successfully in the scarlet-runner beans.

Mr. Will Lawson, who recently visited )the Tangarakau Valley, near Tahora, Taranaki, confirms reports of its outstanding beauty in a country that possesses hundreds of extraordinary beautiful valleys. A lady correspondent last year described the valley's ferns, orchids, and trees graphically, and the daylight chorus of the bell-birds as like the sound of a barbaric army, marching past with fifes, cymbals and drums. Mr. Lawson finds difficulty in describing the bell-birds' choruses as he. heard them. He states that anvbody who wishes to realise the I full quality of the birds' art should visit j the valley and listen to the ushering in j of the day an experience not readily lorgotten.