NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19502, 4 December 1926, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

ST J. DETJMSION'D, F.L.S.. F.Z.S.

THE BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND.

t The pretty white-eye, silver-eye, blighti bird, winter migrant, or pennyweight—- - the Maoris named it tauhou, stranger, r when it made its first appearance in New > Zealand some 70 years ago—is useful in ) Fiji as well as in New Zealand. Colonel R. Snow, 'of Christchurch, who has re- : turned from a visit to Fiji, states that i there it justifies its reputation as a bird ! of good report by attacking the abundant [ insect lite, and by never taking fruit. ; The "iittle fruit it takes in New Zealand ; may be conceded to it in view of its ser- . vices. New Zealand birds, as an avifauna, 1 are characterised by dull plnmage, in the ■ same way as Now Zealand's flowers, as a flora, are noted for their white, yellow , or green blooms —the ratas, the pohutu- • kawa, the scarlet kowhai, and the scarlet mistletoe are brilliant exceptions—and New Zealand's insects for their subdued, even I drab, colours. E ' [ Fiji's avifauna has many brilliant birds. . As the chief glory of the avifauna Colonel [ Snow selects the doves and the fruit : pigeons. Ha mentions particularly the ' nutmeg-pigeon, with its iridescent, wine- | coloured plumage, and the Chili pigeon. , The most elaborately decorated of Fiji's : parrots is the yellow-breasted species, 22in ■ long. On Kandavu Island, the beau- ' tiful Pyrrhulopsis splendens is outside the > pale of the law because it likes fruit, ad j it is caught by the natives and sold to s tourists, but it easily holds its own. in ' spite of its unprotected condition. Another i parrot, which seems to share the title s of one of New Zealand's parrots, jsaka, , although it belongs to a different species, was taken by Samoans, who made special t expeditions to Fiji to shoot it, in order that they might use its feathers in their , mats; but a beneficent Governor of Fiji, 5 a bird-lover, put an end to the practice. J Colonel Snow mentions another New , Zealander, a somewhat notorious one, the , long-tailed cuckoo. In New Zealand it 1 selects grey warblers, tom-tits and other small birds as foster-parents for its young; in Fiji, strangely, it places its eggs in the , nest of a seabird, the noddy tern. > I s One of Fiji's most plentiful and most 3 attractive small birds is the fire-tailed r finch. The male has brilliant red on his 3 crown and his tail; the female's red is , not so brilliant. The Kandavu shrike's l " wonderful colours are matched by insecti- | vorous habits, which should be sufficient t protection to it. The graceful little swiftj let may be seen toward evening, hawk- • ing mosquitoes and other insects. It nests • in a cavern and is a connection of the £ swallow that makes an edible nest, fav o oured by Chinese. The largest bird e of-prey on Fiji m a magnificent bird, witl • a wing-spread of about 4ft. It is "Tui

vucilovu," "Monarch of tho Marshes.' Two harriers, a black falcon and a beauti ful goshawk are members of the sami group. There are a white owl and a raw cinnamon owl. The Fijian redbreast look like the famous Robin Redbreast, on ac count of the colour- of its > vest, but h more closely related to New Zealand'i tom-tits. Fiji's most tuneful warbler Colonel Snow concludes, is the wattlec honey-eater, "which breaks into song at sunrise and at sunset." There seema to be an impression that godwits—known sometimes by their Maori name, kuaka—leave New Zealand on their annual migration to bibena, wliero tiiey nest, from one jumping-ofi place, probably m a single vast flock Mr. Frank Auckland, the famous English naturalist, gave the impression his imprimatur when ue wrote an interesting magazine artsc.e describing the godwits' assemblage at Spirits' Bay, near North Cape, and their departure from that desolate and romantic place, from which, the Maoris believed, spirits leaped to enter the other world. ' Mr. W. Rose, Awanui, points out. clearly and forcibly, the improbability of the theory that godwits select iiny particular place for their departure. He writes: "I cannot help feeling con' vinced that -people are under a wrong im pression in accepting the belief that thej assemble at Parenga Harbour from ali parts of New Zealand and take their de parture in one large flock. I know th< place where they are supposed to assemble and depart from, and, in my opinion, ii yvould riot accommodate them all at th< same time. Farther, the gradual but cor tain decrease in numbers as the sumrnei wanes is quite,apparent, even to a cusua observer. I feel certain that the god wit! depart from New Zealand as they arriv. —one flock after anothsr. I have inquire* from a number of people whether thej have seen the birds assemble at Parengi and leave New Zealand in the way sup posed. Only one claimed to have seiin it and I would not take him seriously. Then are people who, believing a thing, wil say. they have iseen it. In my opinio! that is "the case with godwits. I woulc like to know whether any reliable persoi —someone whose word is above suspicion —can claim to have seen these bird congregate and leave in the way so oftes described." Mr. Rose mentions tho fact well established by other observers, tha some godwits remain in New Zealahi throughout the year. Ha offers the tlaeor; that these are old birds, unequal to tb< stress of a long flight. No godwits bav been known to nest in New Zealand, al though in the summer they are present oi the shores of this Dominion in counties numbers. A Hastings correspondent writes :—"j few weeks ago two of my little ones looking for birds' nests among trees alonj a river bank, found a nest of ducks' egg= hidden by the freshly-grown branches c a cut-off willow, six or seven feet high close to a small backwater pond. The; brought them home, but were ac'lvisei to returp them safely to the nest. i few days ago the young ducks wer hatched. When disturbed they droppei over the side of the tree-trunk and n an instant were hidden from sigh and keeping quiet. The watcher pre sently saw some movement around th roots'of the tree and grasses, but the cbie point of interest is that later, towan evening, the same clay, the young duck: were back again in the nest. How di< they reach that height ? Did the motliei duck carry them up ? It seems impossibh that they could, unaided, return agai: and again." An insect sent by Mr. H. H. Jenkinson, Waipuktxrau, Hawke'a Bay, is very destructive to - gum-trees, and is interesting for other reasons. It is known popularly as the gum-tree scale, and it attacks all gums, particularly the blue-gum. The white-eye, mentioned by Colonel Snow and Mr Norman, is one of its enemies. ihe tui the fan tail, the blackbird and tho song-thrush are on the list; but its greatest enemy is the ladybird, one species of which was introduced from Australia to deal with the scale. The result is that Mr D Miller, Government Entomologist, is "able to report, that the scale is well under control in the, South Island, and there is hope for the same success stt the North Island.