IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15892, 11 October 1913, Page 4

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

(BY JAMES Diidmmqnd, F.L.S., F.Z.S.)

The latest notes on the habits of the kiwi are from Mr S. A. Browne, of Clevedon, Auckland, who expresses a belief that this bird, when searching for its food, stamps on the ground in order to induce! l worms below the surfaco to come up and; 1 be eaten. Ho states that worms are pecu-1' liarly sensitive to sound or movement, and j soon leave a. disturbed place. He has ob- j served worms come out of their holes ; simply because a dog ran past. Frequently he has seen them begin to move because the ground near them was being dug. or a post was being rammed. He adds: — "When a kiwi thrusts its hill into the ground it seldom secures a worm at the first attempt, unless worms are very plentiful. The worm's troubles begin. When it is quick enough to curl around the kiwi's bill. The ki\iri has to tap it in order to straighten it out, andv this often results in a piece being nipped off. In their diet kiwis do not confine themselves to worms. . Any species of grub is accept-! able. They also eat £mal] berries, notably the ground astelia, or poukawa, which we used to call 'kiwi berries/ Nobody who wishes to keep a kiwi need be at a loss : in regard to its food. It will readily eat soaked bread. A'long glass jar or bottle | with its neck.,cut off should be used as al' Teceptacle, in order to give scope for the ; bird's probing habit. Kiwis, in their natural habitats, are extensive foragers. I have known them to come over a creck and through, my orchard to my house, several chains away from their haunts. At the same time they seem to 'stay in j one locality for a long time;. for years I heard a kiwi calling at night from the same place."

Mr Browne does not agree with some writers, who describe -the kiwi as a foolish bird. "It is remarkably cunning and suspicious, and it is very quick in its movements. This is remarkable, because before human beings came to New Zealand it had no deadly enemies. ]f anybody has doubts in reg. .d to the ldwi being quick in its movements, let him place his hand on one of these bird's back, tfo matter how suddenly he may do it, the kiwi, probably, will-- get in its kick. Give a kiwi a fair run at night with a dog. Exccpt that the bird is a more 'artful dodger,' it might be thought that the dog was chasing a rabbit or a hare. In my orchard one night my dog began to chase something. 1 thought it was a rabbit. Had 1 known that it wa3 a kiwi the dog never would have secured his game. I once placed a kiwi in a wire-netting cage without a bottom, in order that it might have an opportunity to feed itself. After wandering around the cage it found that it could not get out- of' the wire-netting cage by any obvious means, and retired to a nest I had provided. I pretended to withdraw, but watched from a safe distance. Presently it came forth and tried to escape under tho netting. It certainly would have succeeded if I had not stopped it. To discourage that kind of enterprise I staked down the netting, and placed wooden bars around the cage. The kiwi did not come out again in the daytime, but during the night it scratched a hole at a place where a few inches had bee'i left between two pieces of wood, and so escaped. The suspicious nature of the kiwi is demonstrated by the way, in which it forsakes a nest or sleeping-place when there are signs that it has been discovered. The kiwi will desert an egg that has been touched. One day I found a kiwi's sleeping-place under a large rata tree. I left a piece of paper, in which my lunch had been wrapped, in front of the lioli, and the place was forsaken that night."

There is no doubt that the fighting capacity of the kiwi has not been free'y recognised. When cornered, it fights with great fury, sometimes coming out to the attack.. On occasion I took a photographer with a kinematograph camera to tafe moving pictures of a kiwi I had in captivity. It was in the daytime, course, and it strongly resented the intrusion into its enclosure. Its anger was so great that it repeatedly rushed at me, sprang into the air, and struck me on tno legs with its feet, delivering blow after blow as rapidly as it could, and all the time cracking its mandibles together. Mr Browne also deals with this trait in the kiwi's character. "I remember once thinking that a dog was on a wild pig," he said, "and so I urged him on. He fought hard for some time,- sufficiently long to enable me to cross a rough bush gully. To my regret, I found that the dog had iust finished a magnificent specimen of a kiwi." |

Some time ago, when turning over the pages of copies of the "Zoologist," published about 60 years ago, I found a reference to the big southern kuvi, whose popular name waa given as " the fireman." 1 had not heard or seen that name applied to the kiwi previously, and could see no reason for it. To satisfy my curiosity I referred the question to Mr A. Hansen, of the Cape Egmont lighthouse, who is well acquainted with the kiwis of the south, and also came'into contact with whalers and sealers who made their headquarters on the southern 'coast in former years. Mr Hansen has kindly Ecnt the following reply " The name was given to the roaroa kiwi. I obtained it from a half-caste Maori named Jack Arnot, or Arnold, a native of southern Now Zealand, and then living at Biverton. I questioned him as to its origin, but he could not tell me where it came from. Mt W. Hay, another native of the southland afterwards, I believe, Commissioner of Crown Lands for Southland, also failed to supply me with the origin of the name. It naturally occurs to the mind that it may have originated by somebody seeing in that species of kiwi a fancied resemblance to a sooty fireman, but against that there is the fact that the publication you mention ante-dates the steam engine in these waters, and this theory therefore cannot be accepted."

From Wimbledon, Hawkes Bay, Mr Taylor White writes that the New Zealand blow-fly, or blue-bottle, although not as plentiful as in the early days, ;s still represented in that district. In Hawkes Bay 'the dark-coloured blow-fly is in full strength near dwellings in spring and summer. In 'the summer the house-fly arrives in increasing numbers, and the larger fly becomes less apparent, but still is found near any carcase. On one occasion Mr Whitd saw millions of fullgrown grubs of this fly migrating from the carcase of a sheep near the roadside. The wriggling crowds were heading across the road, and were climbing a small ledge and going on into the grass. Many _of them fell back in their attempts to climb, but persisted, and held to the same direction. In Hawke's Bay also there is a yellowishbuff fly which is oviparous, and is a great nuisance. Mr White has never seen this fly in Canterbury or Otago, and wishes to know if it is present in those provinces.

• Dealing aga.in with ants, Mr White say<that when these wingod insects are in flight and are fluttering to the ground, they are a great danger to fowls, which eat them and are killed. Ants swarm almost simultaneously over a large area., a habit possessed also by the grass-grub beetle and its bronze-green relative. In the middle of last July—one of the winter months—Mr White, when splitting open a log of firewood tlmt had been carted to the house some months previously, exposed a family of white ants, or termites. They were not very numerous, but with them were a considerable number of winged black ants. Regarded superficially, they did not differ except, perhaps," in size, from the ordinary coloured ants. They were sluggish, and were not prepared to take flight or 6\varm, but this, he says, is the case with ordinary winged ants wlieni the nest is broken open. In concluding his letter, Mr White sends the following extract from a letter he received from his nephew, Mr Q. T. White, who is in the Waitomo-Hanjatiki district: "There are here many birds not seen at Wimbledon. I have seen, for instance, about a dozen native crows. They are a greyish colour, with brightblue gills. There arc a few bell-birds, kiwis, wekas, and many blue mountain ducks, kaias, and parraKeets." Mr Taylor White adds: "80011 all this district ' will have the forest felled and burnt, and where, than, will be these rare birds?"