NATURE NOTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21296, 24 September 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES

BV J. DRUMMOND, F.L.S., F.Z.S.

BEAUTIFUL SEA-LILIES ' -t; ■

As they cannot bo eaten by human beings, not even by any fishes used for human food, sea-lilies arc neglected. They are allowed to live in peace, displaying ill the sea their amazing beauty and delicacy of form, and their equally amazing range of colours. They are creatures, not plants, but arc more like flowers than creatures, and few flowers excel them in depth, diversity and brilliance of colouration. They beautified the sea ages before the hills and mountains shouted for joy when the flowers appeared on the land. More than 200 living colours have been found in them. These range from black to wine-red, blue, green, yellow, brown, carmine, crimson, orange, violet, olive, purple and gold.

Sea-lilies at the Great Barrier Reef of Australia probably rank as Nature's most brilliant effort. The variety of their hues is boundless, running through every gradation from pale yellow to rose-pink, deep crimson and black, and including every combination of those colours. One species there clothes its ferny arms resplendently with old-gold and bronzegreen. The arms of a dark purple species are purple, washed with light grey, at the base. Further up they are reddish-brown, further still dark reddish-orange, at the lips very light purple washed with silver; feathery processes on the arms are covered with rings of silver and purple.

Swimming or creeping, the gay limbs are moved slowly and languidly. Creeping is a complex movement, pulling and pushing combined. Some arms, usually three or four, sometimes as many as seven, are stretched to their full length, and the feathery processes at the ends catch hold of projecting objects. Attachment is made by using tiny hooks at the tips of the processes and by a sticky substance secreted from glands. Mr. Austin H. Clark, of the United States National Museum, who has watched sea-lilies in tanks and has written tomes about them, points out that, on account of this stickiness, a sea-lily can move on even very smooth surfaces. Rock surfaces and tightly-packed sand are most suitable. Locomotion is difficult on loose sand. When processes on extended arms have taken a hold, arms on the opposite side of the body are drawn up in a strongly-arched position. After the extended arms have secured a hold, and begin to contract and to pull the sea-lily toward the place of attachment, the arched arms begin to straighten out and to push the sea-lily in the same direction.

The food of sea-lilies varies in itg nature in accordance with the bottom of the sea on which they live. They are carnivorous, devouring microscopical creatures, bat seaweeds and other plants have been found in their stomachs. They are subject to parasites. Most of these are casual parasites. That is, they are members of groups whose other members are not parasitic. They are merely species that find an easy life by preying on the sea-lilies. Other creatures live with sea-lilies in partnership, mutually advantageous. Some sea-lilies live in the cavities of large sponges and gather minute creatures brought to them by currents that flow into openings in the sponges. W a kched in clear water, fishes swam toward sealilies, but, when within a few inches, turned away. By sight, or by some other sense, the fishes immediately knew that the sea-lilies were inedible. Kept with other creatures in an aquarium, sea-lilies were the first to die. The explanation is that they must have pure water, well aerated, and that the water in the aquarium was not sufficiently pure.

They accommodate themselves to daylight, but dislike the' direct rays of the sun. If the rays become too strong, a sealily rolls up its arms. If the exposure is prolonged, and is repeated, the arms are detached one by one and fall to the bottom, and the sea-lily soon dies. In their natural habitat, sea-lilies show a tendency to withdraw from brilliant light and to creep into dark rocky holes or crannies, An arm of a vigorous sea-lily was amputated by a snip of a scissors. The detached arm made very active movements for fifteen minutes, coiling snd uncoiling with great force and rapidity. After it became quiescent, one end of it was touched with a fine brush charged with nitric acid. Violent and repeated bending resulted. A large and active sealily was eviscerated without removal from the water. It was quiescent for about a minute, an J then swam actively and normally. It rested on the bottom of the tank, but half an-hour later it began to swim again.

Mr. H. P. Keane, Ngongotaha, Rotorua, says he does not believe that Mr. Westhead, Kohekohe, Manukau Harbour, will succeed in inducing other birds to hatch bellbirds' eggs and rear the young; but he advises Mr. Westhead not to despair of having bellbirds in his bush, as they migrate from one district to another. Mr. Keane states: "Nine or ten years ago there were no bellbirds in the southern part of the Mangarewa Forest, ten miles from Rotorua. They are very plentiful there now. They oven made long flights to farms in the open country in search of the blooms of the early-flowering lucerne-tree and the blossoms of scattered fuchsia-trees. On sunny mornings, when the air is crisp after a hard frost, they seem to assail the woodman by insisting to put on a concert. I have noticed that when a woodman pretended to be unresponsive they united their forces with one consent, inflated their breasts and poured forth a volume of music until their harmonious madness compelled the listener to put down his axe and- to stand reverently while he drank in the melody that overflowed his soul. St. John Chrysostom said that one sight of the glorious statue of Jove, a Greek masterpiece in marble, was sufficient to make a man forget that he ever had a care or a burden. Likewise, these notes, sweeter than the music made by the Statue of Memnryi, dispel all sadness, and raises the mind to higher things. I advise Air. Westhead not to abandon hope that he will hear these songsters in the temples of Tane bordering on the Manukau."

Three or four years ago, Mr. Iveane writes, kiwis could bo heard calling near Ngongotaha every night. They are absolutely silent now, having, probably, fallen to weasels. The wood-robin dwells in depths of the forests there, but it is becoming rare. The native crow, kokako, still pipes its notos in the spreading branches, and tuis are plentiful. The tui, the bellbird, the native crow and the wood robin are described by Mr. Keatie as " the divine quartette." Ho once felled 150 acres of native forest in one season in the Mangaweka district, on the Main Trunk line. During the nesting season, the only nest he found was a tui's. It held four eggs. In a previous season he found a wood-pigeon's nest, seldom seen by even experienced and observant bushmen. The nest was " merely •a few crossed sticks, obviously the last thing in discomfort."