NATURE NOTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21254, 6 August 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES

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

PIPIB AND MUSSELS

The oyster is the favourite mollusc in New Zealand these days. Before Europeans first came to this country, and for at least a quarter of a century afterwards, pride of place among the molluscs was held by the pipis. Their popularity with the Maoris is evidenced by shell-mounds and middens built mostly near the sea shore, or on the banks of estuaries, bub sometimes far inland, even in the hearts of dense forests. This refers mainly to a mollusc called the true pipi, or commou pipi. It is oval, about two inches and a half long, usually white or pale yellow, and smooth. The other pipi is rounded and ribbed, and looks like a cockle. Although their habitats are different, the smooth pipi usually selecting sandy mud or sandbanks, the ribbed pipi preferring pure mud, only a connoisseur can detect any difference in their taste. Roasted in tho hot ashes of a wood fire on the beach, or placed in a tin of boiling water until their valves open, both species are delicate and delicious. The common pipi is so plentiful and accessible that it was an important item on the Maori's menu. They formed large parties to gather pipis, wading in water up to the knees, digging up tho molluscs with their hands, and throwing them ashore, where they were placed in flax

baskets to be carried to the scenes of the feasts. In this respect Uie Maoris followed a custom observed among almost all uncivilised peoples that live near the sea. The two species of pipi are peculiar to New Zealand. In other countries their place ■at the table is taken by other molluscs less delicate in taste, perhaps, but still very acceptable, and not unnutritious. Malays gather molluscs that abound in mangrove swamps. They throw them on wood fires, and suck the flesh through an opening in the shells. Appealing to less sensitive palates in the Corean Islands is a mollusc with a peppery flavour, which bites the tongue. Dried cephalopods still are in vogue with the Chinese. The common -.mussel, Mytilus edulis, found in New Zealand waters, and in most other parts of the world, also was popular with the Maoris. It is cultivated extensively in France, but apparently nowhere else. The principal establishment for the industry is in a small town near La Rochelle, close to famous oyster-parks. The simple method of cultivation is to erect hurdles in the mud of the foreshore. Mussels grow on the hurdles, and are gathered without trouble. It is believed that the method was invented by a shipwrecked Irishman. He hung a net on stakes, hoping to catch seabirds. He found that mussels clung to the stake, and that it was easier to take them than to snare birds. He increased the number of his stakes until he had a permanent food supply at hand. Each hurdle is about 450 yards long, and stands six feet out of the mud, making a strong wall of solid basketwork. There are about 500 hurdles. The complete length of the mussel-bearing wall is almost 130 miles. It is estimated that each yard of a hurdle yields a cart-load of mussels, and that the industry is worth at least £52,000 a year. Planting is done by scraping oil young mussels on the most seaward hurdle and placing them in small bags made of old canvas or netting, each bag holding a handful of mussels. The bags are fastened to the inner hurdles, to which the mussels soon attach themselves, the bags rotting and falling away. Hanging in clusters, the mussels quickly increase in size. They are transplanted to hurdles further and further up the tide level, in order to bring the mature mussels as close as possible to the shore when the time comes to gather them. The fishermen glide over the mud in light flat-bottomed boats, propelling them by shoving the mud with their feet. The common mussel was not so greatly in vogue with the Maoris as the common pipi. In suitable places in New Zealand, mussels are surprisingly plentiful. Years ago hundreds of acres of banks between Tauranga and the sea \n one season were colonised by the spawn of mussels. Pre-

viously, mussels were rare on those banks. After the colonisation the banks were a mass of mussels. Banks occupied by mussels in thousands for generations are sometimes almost completely deserted by the molluscs without any obvious cause. It may have been a sudden change in the weather. Mussels are sensitive to cold weather. During an easterly gale 19£ acres of mussels in England were killed in one night. Poisoning by mussels is much more frequent than poisoning by oysters, but it does not seem to have been reported 1 in New Zealand. Forty-seven years ago, at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, many people : were poisoned by eating mussels, and some died. The trouble was attributed tc 1 stagnant and polluted waters in the harbour, which were seldom freshened by the | tides.

- About twenty-seven years ago Mr. A. C. Morton, of Paki-iti, near Feilding, while mustering with three mates in the back of Marlborough, camped one night on the tip of a range, selecting a saddle between two peaks. Making the smoothest bed possible on bare shingle, they lay down under the open sky. It was a perfect night, still and clear. Sleep did not come readily, and Mr. Morton was telling his mates something about the stars, when they heard in the south-west weird sounds. The old hand, who had lived on the hill? for. twenty-five years, said that they were the cries of the night birds. From the same direction as the sounds there came three birds, Hying with remarkable speed. They passed not more than twenty feet above the men. They flew so swiftly that, after they had passed overhead, they were almost immediately lost to sight. - • Mr. Morton writes: "Although the birds flew close above us, wo heard no sound from the wings. I asked the old hand if he had seen the birds previously. He said that he had not, but had heard the notes on several occasions when he camped at similar places. I presume that, as we camped on a saddle at a high altitude, we were favourably placed for seeing the night-birds. I never met anybody else who saw them." Tho birds were nocturnal petrels, flying, probably, between their burrows in the hills and the sea. Black petrels nest on some of tho mountain ranges in Western Nelson, and they may have mountain homes in parts of Marlborough also, although they have not been authentically reported there. They favour tho North Island, particularly the Little Barrier Island, islands in Hauraki Gulf, and cliffs in the Bay of Plenty, but they sometimes travel inland. * Black petrels sometimes straggle across the Tasman Sea to Australia. Three individuals have been reported from tho Galapagos Islands, off the coast of Peru, suggesting a wider migration than the species is credited with. Its notes have been compared to the combination of a soft whistle and a deep whirr, loud, rasping, and unmusical, also to the notes of the black swan and to the mewing of a cat. In the old days black petrels were on the Maoris* list of mutton-birds. They_ were caught in their burrows, plucked, singed, and roasted, placed in a sort of box made of totaf-a and covered with their own fat, which preserved them for a fairly long time. Each female lays a single egg, about the end of November. In defending their homes these sea-birds are fierce, using their sharp bills to attack intruders. Knowledge of the species dates back to Captain Cook's first voyage,' and it bears the name Parkinsonii, in honour of Sydney Parkinson, artist on that memorable expedition.