NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19215, 2 January 1926, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

CROWS AND OTHER BIRDS.

BY J. DBUMMOND, !?.L.S., y.Z.S.

Whatever fate may bo overtaking the orange-and-blue wattled crow of the South Island, its cousin of the North Island, distinguished by all-blue wattles, is not as rare as is commonly believed. Observers report it not infrequently from forest districts in the Auckland, Wellington and Taranaki provinces. Mr, W. Townson, of Thames, mi experienced field botanist and a reliable general observer, reports that, when tramping along forest tracks among the hills, he sees or hears a native crow cjuite often. Last summer when he was enjoying a cup of billy tea with some friends on a bushclad hill, a crow flew into a tree-top overhead. It studied the strangers from many angles and stayed with fchom until, catching sight of a fantail, it gave chase and was seen no more. In a clump of bush near Pukckohe, Mr. Townson saw a flock of native crows where, on winter mornings, several took a sun bath on the tops of tawa trees and tolled the most beautiful bell-like notes, surprisingly rich. The note of one of them, ho states, might be a tone below th-? note of its neighbour, and the note of another a tone above, so that the lucky listeners enjoyed a rare concert. In former years Mr. Tuwnson often at dawn listened spellbound to the bell-bird's chorus from a hundred little throats; but he finds that their efforts are excelled by half-a-dozen native crows, who sing to the rising sun a Hymn which, once heard, cannot bo forgotten.

In May or June flocks of vrhito-headed stilts, a hundred strong or more, congregate on mud flats of tho Coromandel Peninsula, attracting attention by their peculiar yelping notes. Mr. Townson often has watched their: feeding. He describes them acting in concert, and marching in line up channels left by the tide, and scooping the mud aside with rhythmic movements. About this time of the year black petrels, as black as night, may bo seen flying over tho Firth of Thames. At dusk, or at dawn, thgir notes, unliko the notes of any other bird, may be heard as they fly to or from. ti>eir burrows in the nesting-grounds on tho main range. Another writer has described the notes as coming down through tho darkness from a great height, seeming to belong to some ominous inauspicious creature, whose presence bodes nobody any good; they strike the ear as the combination of a soft whistle and a deep whirr, coming from tho bottom of a husky throat; these ai.e repeated at frequent intervals, and axo loud and rasping and utterly unmusicaL Mr. Townsoii was told that black petrels make their burrows among roots of the yellow pines, known locally a; 3 tamarack, on 1 tho top of Kaitaraki, and, doubtless, on Table Mountain.

A pair of blue herons, or white-fronted herons —there is not much superficial difference betwaan them, both havinr bluishgrey costumes —fly nea.r Ihames Borough with slow and heavy flight, passing from one • sandspit to another. Mr. Townson seldom walks along the _ main Road near Kauaeranga - Bridge without seeing a> banded rail,, „or pectoral rail. He has watched it search for food on tho muddy bank of the river. Ho has flushed it on tho roadside and has seen it fly for cover among the mangroves, with laboured flight, and with its long legs trailing behind. He supplies ono of its Maori names, patatai, one of at least seventeen names used by Maoris for this pretty creature, whoso official ornithological title, Hypotamidia Phillipensis has been introduced into poetry. It has a much wider range than New Zealand,- extending to Australia, tho Pacific Islands, the Moluccas and the Malaya Archipelago. Kiwis are heard of occasion ally in gullies back of Thames Borough, but they are far from plentiful. "Wekas are spoken of in almost the past tense in the Lower Thames Valley.

Captain 0 Schulze, Auckland, joins Mr. P. L. Hills in commenting on the comparative paucity of moths and butterflies fn New Zealand. When Captain Schulze lived for four years on a New Zealand farm, he searched in vain for specimens he had caught in Europe when a boy. Among these was the swallow-tail butterfly, as large as the palm of a big boy's hand, and marked with light and dark blue, brown and yellow. In cemeteries in European cities, jasmine and honeysuckle are largely cultivated, and many moths and iDutterflies frequent those plants. Although Captain Schulze has not seen the swallow-tail in New Zealand, he has seen it out of Europe. It was when, as the result of a shipwreck, he bad to spend two months on an island in the South Pacific. While butterfly-hunting there for a small collection he was surprised to see one of these iniiects, and he caught it. He also misses iia New Zealand the highly-coloured beetles lie collected in Europe. Their absence may be a source of regret to keen naturalist!? like Captain Schulze, but some of them, indubitably, New Zealand is bettor without. He mentions particularly a large beetle, with a unicorn on its nose " like one sees in books." This is thß rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes nasicornis, which takes a heavy toll from the cocoanut crops in Samoa. A native of Southern Europe, it was introduced accidentally to Ceylon, and, accidentally again, to Samoa, with disastrous results. The male only is equipped vith the horn, which springs from the top of its head and curves backward; but the female has a horny elevation on the front of her head. Another beetle Captain Schulze knew when he was a boy is the stag-beetle, a large and imposing insect, with conspicuous mandibles that project like antlers. The stag-beetle's grub, it is stated, takes five years to go completely through its metamorphosis to the perfect stage.

Many years ago, according to information supplied to Mr. J. Cody, Obakune, a large flock of wood-pigeons alighted on a vessel lying off Whakatane. They were so poor in condition and so exhausted that several were caught by the hand. He states that the flock seemed to.have come from a distant land. He suggests that the wood-pigeon is migratory, and in support of this he states that, although he has spent years in the bush, he Has never seen a young wood-pigeon or a woodpigeon's nest, and he does not know anybody who has seen a nest. New Zealand's wood-pigeon is not found in any other country. The flock that alighted on the vessel may have been blown out to sea, and was trying to return. If wood-pigeons were plentiful on the Kermadec Islands, north-cast of New Zealand, they may have come from that corner of the Dominion, but the wood-pigeons' presence there is reported doubtfully. The Chatham Island wood-pigeon is a different species from the wood-pigeon of the mainland. Failure to notice the wood-pigeon's nest counts for nothing. Few people' have seen it, because it is built with a seeming carelessness that makes it inconspicuous. Tho wood-pigeon makes migrations in New Zealand, but not overseas. These migrations seem to be determined by the abundance of food supplies. New Zealanders should not forget that their pigeon is the largest in the world, and one of the handsomest. The dodo was a larger pigeon, but the dodo is dead, dead as a doornail, in proverb and in fact.