NATURE NOTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22166, 20 July 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES

MIGRATING BIRDS

BY J. DIIUMMOND, K.L.8., 1.Z.8

Having seen the curlew-sandpiper often, once in a ilock of twenty or thirty individuals, Mr. E. F. Stead, of Christehurch, regards the species as a regular migrant to New Zealand, not an occasional visitor. Its eggs, an inch and a-half long, are boldly and richly marked. They have been found in nests made among reindeer-moss on the tundras of Eastern Siberia and in a few other places in those distant regions. From there, curlew-sandpipers fly to North America. Europe, Africa, India, China, the Malay Archipelago, Australia and New Zealand. None of those Mr. Stead saw had put 011 their full wedding garments, but he noted in them a social disposition they seem to carry wherever they go. He usually saw them associating with banded dotterels. On being disturbed, members of a flock of With species rose and flew round together. Alarm subsiding, all the curlew-sandpipers settled together, slightly separated from the dotterels.

The same sociableness characterises curlew-sandpipers in their Arctic territory. Several pairs often nest fairly close. Males and females have been seen on nests, the sexes, evidently, sharing cares of incubation. Young curlewsandpipers, as soon as they are fledged, gather in flocks and then set out on the perilous journey to the uttermost ends of the earth, where they stay until their thoughts turn to the old home, and they must leave these pleasant places and return to bleaker and colder surroundings.

A thrill was experienced by Mr. H. Popham, an explorer,' when he saw the first authentic eggs of a curlewsandpiper. It was on the lower reaches of the Yenesei River. Finding that ice blocked his way, he turned back to explore an island of soft tundra. One of his men called out that he had seen a curlew-sandpiper. Mr. Popham saw it. He and another man lay down on the ground, while mosquitoes, horribly vicious in those regions, joyfully feasted on them. The curlewsandpiper stood and watched the strangers at first, but soon ran about, dodging into every little hollow and behind every ridge. After pretending to walk away several times, the watchers saw the anxious bird settle on its nest and shuffle its eggs. Another naturalist walked over eight swampy miles of tundra on the delta of the Yenesei and lay in the sleet for a long time before a nest was discovered closa to two small tarns covered with blue ice, reindeer herds grazing in the dis;tance. The only distraction was a Samoyede sledge that glided swiftly over a ridge.

Why birds migrate regularly so far and so determinedly is a mystery. Patient study and thought by Dr. A. Landsborough Thomson led him to no solution of the phenomenon. He could not explain the migrants' motives by intelligent action, as when a person spends the winter in a milder climate. That explanation seemed to him to credit migrants with a measure of intelligence, and appreciation of seasonal changes, and rational action beyond a bird's mind. Every explanation offered is upset. Sandpipers, godwits and sanderlings that come to New Zealand from Arctic regions, passing through the tropics, do not come here to avoid northern rigours. Dr. Landsborough Thomson's conclusion is that much more knowledge must be accumulated before migration is understood. His theory is that it arises from instinct, that it is an inherited racial custom. Instinct is an important part in all life, but is itself a profound mystery, and the theory leads nowhere.

Lunching in a forest, Mr. J. Power, Mauunui, King Country, watched a grey warbler feed a young shining cuckoo. It was his first experience of the beautiful parasite and its homely victim, which carried a splendid virtue so far as to become a vice, but he had read practices widely separated of the two species in the scheme of classification, bound closely by life's actualities. He feels that a young cuckoo, brought up, fed and cared for in this way, would be expected to pour out its affections on its foster-parents,, ignoring its most unnatural real parents. This is what it does, but neither affection nor gratitude enters into its hard little heart. It is utterly selfish. Mi*. Power is surprised that parent cuckoos do not stay about and help their young. He may well be surprised, but the fact remains that the parents take no interest whatever in their young. They do not have other birds' anxieties and joys in selecting sites for nests, building them cosily and bringing up their families. A shining cuckoo usually arrives in Mr. Power's district about October 1. It immediately becomes very noisy.

Sir «7. Arthur Thomson, of Aberdeen, discussing the domestic cat, says: " Has any human being the hardihood to say that he or she understands a cat? Affectionate but capricious, attached but reserved, proverbially tame but with hidden wildness, sociable but walking alone, the cat is a bundle of inconsistencies. It has no enthusiasm. Fond of master or mistress, it prefers the house to either of them. It has been dependent on man for thousands of years and has no end of polite ways, .vet, when not pampered, it is full of lurking wildness. Nobody can call a eat a friend. A dog becomes low-spirited if you do not assure it of your approbation and affection. A cat does not turn a hair. It likes to be petted in moderation and purrs delightfully, but it can go without and be quite happy. Of its intelligence there is no doubt. A dog is clever; cat is a Sphinx. After we have granted intelligence, the cat, in respect to. feeling, remains a mystery."

The Australian wasp came to New Zealand more than forty years ago. Half a century may be set down as the period of its presence here. Although firmly established, it has not spread as rapidly or widely as might be expected in a mild climate. The first record came from Rawene, Hokianga County, fortyone years ago. The species then was plentiful all over the Hokianga district. In these days, an orchard may be full of the nests. Each nest is divided into many six-sided cells, each cell the cradle of a baby wasp. The young are fed with chewed-up bodies of spiders and caterpillars and a relish of honey or something else Each little immature wasp spins a silken cap over the entrance to its cell, shuts out the light and the world, falls into the inertia of the chrvsalis stage, and emerges a perfect wasp, handsome, industrious and vibrant with energy.;