NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19221, 9 January 1926, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

THE SONG OF DAWN.

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

The Song of Dawn, seldom sung on the mainland now, may still be heard on unfrequented islands. Among the:-e are the Poor Knights, about 15 miles from the coast of Whangarei County. Mr. 11. Hamilton, a member of the staff of the Dominion Museum. Wellington, heard it there not long ago, in all its exquisite beauty. He does not describe it in detail, perhaps because he feels that it cannot be described adequately. He merely states that it is worth going a long way to hear, a very long way, doubtless. It is the self-same wild melody that fell on Sir Joseph Banks' ears one January morning 156 years ago, when he was on Captain Cook's vessel in Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound. "And in the morning," the unemotional but enraptured scientist wrote in his diary, "we were awakened by the singing of birds. The number was incredible. They seemed to strain their throats in emulation of one another. This wild melody was infinitely superior to any that we havo ever heard, of the same kind. It seemed to be like small bells, most exquisitely tuned, and perhaps the distance and the water between might bo no small advantago to the sound."

Most of the early morning melodists 011 the Poor Knights an bellbirds. Pohutukawa trees that shaded Mr. Hamilton's open-air dining-room on the southern island were the home of a family of nestling bellbirds. The parents at first were shy and fearful of the intrusion, but in a few days the fledglings were fed at the same time as the intruders dined. The nest was within 4ft. of the dining table. Although parrakeets have disappeared inexplicably from every part of the mainland, they are even now one of the most conspicuous features of bird life on the Poor Knights, their bright green plumage, picked out with yellow and red, relieving the sombreness of the , foliage. "With ceaseless chatter and boundless energy," Mr. Hamilton reports, "they dominate life in' the scrub and on the chSs." Small flocks of them in December search the flower heads of .the toe-toe and grasses for seeds. The swamp-rail, the ashy-grey shearwater, for many years rare in collections, and until recently with an unknown breeding-place, the tui, and the native lark, which frequents rocks 011 the foreshore, are present 011 the Poor Knights; and on the Pinnacles south of the Poor Knights there is a colony of gannets. The Poor Knights were named by Captain Cook, but his reason for selecting this quaint title is not clear. For generations communities of Maoris shared with the birds the islands' loveliness, snaring the birds in the forests, fishing in tho waters, and fortifying their villages with stone walls and palisades.

The Hen Island, the main island of the Hen and Chickens, south of tho Poor Knights, is notable as ono of the homes of the saddleback, a noisy, chattering and amiable bird with quick movements and shrill, penetrating notes. This- New ' Zealand representative of the starling family, now seldom seen or heard on the mainland, is so plentiful on the Hen that it is the mopt notable feature of bird life there. Even before Mr. Hamilton landed on the Hen, and when he was some distance from the shore, he heard the saddleback's notes —strident notes, he describes them. No opportunity offered for observing it, evidently, although it was seen every day, usually in pairs. As long as the forest and scrub remain on the Hen, ,the saddleback will multiply and thrive, is Mr. Hamilton's opinion, based on this bird's distribution over the island. The saddleback is black, with a deep chestnut saddle-mark on its back and wings, and, as an ornament, a wattle, usually orange, but variable between orange and red, below each ear. Tho sexes are alike, but the young saddleback, it is now believed, is mostly brown, but dull chestnut on the lower part of its back; For many years, it was believed that the young was a distinct species, to which was given the title "Jack-bird." Sir Walter Buller determinedly held to the view that the .Tack-bird was not a saddleback. Mr. Hamilton kept a careful watch for signs of the Jack-bird, but every young saddleback ho saw on the Hen had the full regalia of the adult saddleback, the only difference being in the development of the wattles. His observations on the Hen have left the question of the Jack-bird as it was.

Saddlebacks' strange habit, noted on the mainland, of following flocks of smaller native birds through the forest does not seem to have come under Mr. Hamilton's notice on the Hen. The habit has been accounted for by the pretty theory that saddlebacks act as voluntary scouts for the smaller birds, to warn them of danger. The attraction, probably, if there is any attraction, is the work-a-day one of obtaining food supplies that smaller birds disclose. In any case, whether the object is selfish or unselfish, saddlebacks in attendance on flocks of bush canaries present one of the most charming sights in New Zealand forests. Mr. W. W. Smith, of New Plymouth, has written many pleasant descriptions of forest scenes, but nothing pleasanter than a description of a woodland scene near Lake Brunner years ago: " I had travelled on the banks and in the bed of a creek .for almost a mile, when I turned to the right up a narrow gully in search of ferns. On reaching almost the top of the gully I heard the ringing notes of a flock of bush canaries. As I saw them crossing the gully above me, I moved on gently, until I was under the branches to which thev wero advancing. They numbered about 200 and were in rich plumage. For some minutes they fed eagerly among the branches of the'trees. Then, uttering their call simultaneously, they flew forward and fed until they again sounded the signal to advance, repeating it at short intervals and passing on through the bush in that order. Before' they had quite disappeared, I heard the notes of a flock of saddlebacks advancing. Two males appeared first. Thev were followed by the rest of tho flock. They advanced in the line of the bush canaries. They moved about in a sprightly manner on the lower branches within a few feet of my face, scanning me carefully. They wero exceedingly tame and moved with great activity, stopping at intervals and resting their breasts for a few seconds on the boughs and again proceeding, searching carefully for food among the ferns and mosses. They remained for about seven minutes and then disappeared slowly in the track of the bush canaries." " I went west over sand-dunes north of Waikato Heads to-day to look for gulls' nests," Mr. J. Thomson wrote from Maioro, Otaua, on December 23. " I found three nests, two empty, one with four young. They were crude, made of toi and roots of sand-binding grasses, and had been placed in the most exposed positions on sandstone cliffs, which winds had swept bare of the original covering of ironsand. On our approach a sentinel flew up and circled, uttering warning notes. It was joined by five other gulls, which made a great clamour. No young were seen when we found the nests, but a careful search disclosed the four mentioned, in crevices or among boulders. They wero very hard to find as they looked like the grey sandstone."-