IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18850, 1 May 1923, Page 2

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

bieds in the west coast sounds.

By J. Dbummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.

During an excursion in December to Preservation Inlet, Dusky Sound, Wet Jacket Arm, Breaksea Sound, Pickersgill Harbour, and Facile Harbour, Mr D. L. Poppelwell, of Gore, noted 45 species of birds, 20 of them • sea-birds. Some 'the sea-birds always were seen in suitable places, but no species was plentiful except mutton birds. The handsome parti-coloured petrel known as the Cape pigeon—it' jisually ■is mentioned in accounts of the voyages of early colpiiists—was in the wake of , the Water Lily all the time she was at sea during the 14 days occupied by the excursion. The beautiful snowy albatrosses, whose home is believed to be near Cape-Horn, and the mollymawks sailed round the ketch in wide circles. . A single gannet was seem Members of the party saw nesting-places of the mackerel gull—red bill, legs, and feet—on rocky places, and in Acheron Passage and Breaksea, Sound they noted the i white bodies of terns plastered against rocky,cliffs which, apparently, hardly offer foothold to a lizard. “The terns’ nesting-places were quite inaccessible, and, therefore, safe.” Mr Poppelweil) writes, “but we wondered how the young birds fared when their time to move arrived; a, Jumble to the, water; fifteen' - or twenty, feef below, 'seemed rh--evitable.”

On the shore,, redbills, a common;species of waders in Now Zealand, were rearing their young. Their antics in their efforts to entice the strangers away from the young birds were very amusing. Their cousins, the pied oyster-catchers, were not seen. On the land, wekas were fairly common, but less plentiful than on Stewart Island. One kiwi was heard, but: none was seen. Paradise ducks, grey, ducks,..and spoonbills were seen, but not'in large numbers. Black swans were fairly plentiful. Mr Poppelwell accounts for the 'compara-. tive scarceness of forest birds by the wet character of the forests in that district. “Their dull interiors,” he states, “hardly are cheerful enough for our song birds, many of whom are honey-eatem, and' are found only - where sunshine and bright flowers abound.’’ The forest birds seen were the wood-pigeon, the kaka, the parrakeet, the tui, the bell bird, the grey warbleV, the fantail, the brown creeper, the robin, the white-eye, the long-tailed cuckoo, and the shining ouekoo. A blackbird and a song-thrush were heard in the forests, and at a height of about 2000 ft a pair of redpolls, representing perhaps the most useful, as well ns the daintiest, importation from the Old Country, were seen.

Mackerel gulls, which Mr Poppelwell saw nesting in the Sounds .in December, are frequenters of the coast; unlike the blackbacked gull and the black-billed gull, they seldom go far inland, but they are not uncommon in the dominion’s harbours. On. lonely coasts, where there are, no human activities, flocks ‘of hundreds flutter down on stones and boulders close to the water’s edge. Members' of the flocks sometimes stand together for about half an hour, each on its own little boulder, and each facing the wind A peculiar grating cry, like “Kroo Kroo!” is uttered by one of them. Ajl take It up. With a great flutter of wings, the flock rises some 20ft in the air, like a great white curtain. There is a fluttering for a few seconds, and then it settles on the boulders again, each member facing the wind.

Light and bpoyant in the air, niaoherel gulls are very graceful fliers. Their red bills, legs and feet contrast with their whit© breasts, pearly-grey backs, and black-banded wings. They watch on the coast for shoals of fish to come in from the sea. Some, more impatient than others, wade into ripples in t the shallows, and allow the water to wash; past their legs. As soon as an old bird catches. a .fish young ones set up a noisy croon and open their mouths remarkably wide. The. fish is dropped into an open mouth and is swallowed by the greedy young. The fish hardly disappears before the cooing begins again, and the parents, greatly agitated, start out on another fishing expedition. The mackerel gull is known popularly as the red-billed . gull. Amongst its Maori names are akiaki and tarapunga.

Visitors to sub-Antarctio islands, south of New Zealand, where men seldom go, are surprised at the tameness and confiding nature of mackerel gulls. On the shores of the Auckland Islands,- about 200 miles south of the mainland, they paddle in the water within a few feet of visitors. They„ ate the -constant’ ' companions' "’ of fishing parties in the bays of those islands, and six of them sometimes .fight and squabble for pieces of bait thrown to them. Mr E. R. Waite, curator of the South Australian National' Museum, Adelaide, when fishing in a deep gulch at the Snares, was surprised to find that mackerel gulls, on the wing, tried to seize his bait as he hauled it up for a fresh cast. They took bait that was lying within arm’s length, To discover the limit of their confidence, he dropped food at successively closer distances, until they took it from his fingers, screaming and jostling one another in their eagerness. The species has not been noted anywhere except on the mainland of New Zealand, and on the Auckland, Campbell, Chatham, and Stewart Islands.

The black-billed gull,* a frequenter of rivers and lakes, but occasionally, a visitor to harbours, is another of New Zealand’s exclusive possessions. New Zealand’s thirds species of gull, seen in harbours, bays. and( estuaries, in cultivated fields, on river beds,’ and far inland the brown tussocky hills and valleys of the Southern Alps, is found in Antarctica, South Afrio)i, South America, and Kerguelen Island, as well as in New Zealand, but, strangely, .not in Australia or Tasmania. It is singular that none of New Zealand’s three species of gulls is found in the commonwealth, and that none of our next door neighbour’s gulls are found here, while species of petrels, terns, and shore birds, as well as a few land birds, notably the pukeko, the pectoral rail,' and the white-oyo, grace both countries as natives.

“AH lovers of New Zealand birds,” Dr D. A. Bathgate wrote from Turua-Hauraki Plains, on April 4-, “will be to know that a white heron appeared in this district during the past few days. It' has established its home at the lower end of a small island in the Waihou, or Thames River, at the Wharopoa ferry crossing. ■ Whore it has come from is a mystery. J saw it for the first time yesterday. It seems to have settled down in its new surroundings. The man in charge of the ferry is keeping a paternal eye on it. No vandal, it is to be hoped, will have an opportunity to destroy or mar the beauty of this exnuisite specimen of the Creator’s work.” Another correspondent, a resident of Paeroa. reports the presence of the same bird in the district. He states that it has been seen in. the Awaiti Lagoon as well as at Wharepoa. . t

Satisfactory reports are received of the ancient heronry at Okarito, South Westland, where white herons have nested, probably, for hundreds of years. For a long time it has been the most important : home of the white heron in New Zealand. Residents, to their credit, guard it carefully. Although the white heron always was rare in the North Island, according to Maori proverbs, it was not uncommon on the shores of lakes and rivers, and in lagoons, in the South Island when Europeans first came to this country. The female white heron usually lays in the third week in November, and incubates for four weeks. The yOung birds stay in the nests for a fairly long time. The beautiful while plumes on the back, known to milliners as egrets, are developed in the nesting season by both sexes. The following description has been given of a white heron on the wing:—“The head is kept far back, the tip of the bill being behind the forward curve of the neck, and the logs are stretched out ■behind. The large rounded wings beat slowly, but the bird’s progress is rapid.” There was —perhaps is still —a strange custom amongst Tuhoe Maoris who live in the Urowera Counfry, that if a'man wore the plume of a white heron while eating, no woman should join in the meal until he took it off and placed it aside. It Was believed that if a woman persisted in mining in the meal she would become bald.

A note by Mr J. Joyce, Bligh’s road, Papanui, Christchurch, a few months ago, stating that individual song-thrushes in his garden have noticeably distinct songs, has brought the following supporting evidence from Mr J. W. Roberts, Christchurch: “ The Rev. Frank Gorman, known as ‘The Singing Parson,’ while on a visit to Christchurch was walking with a friend along Riccarton road, and he commented on the beautiful notes of a song-thrush in the trees. Returning to Christchurch twelve months later, ho walked with his friend along the same road, and the song was heard again. Mr Gorman said that the songster was the same bird as tftejT herd hoard previously. His friend saying that there were many song-thrushes in the neighbourhood, expressed his doubt as to the accuracy of the statement. Mr Gorman,