IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18999, 23 October 1923, Page 2

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

EOMISTERS OP OTHER DAYS By J. Drummond. F.L.S.. F.Z.S. The North Island thrush—piopio —and the huia are described by Mr A. J. Rutherfurd. Alfredtown, Wellington proyince. ns the most charming songsters of the old Firty Miles Bush. When he first heard the thrush’s rich, contralto, bell-like note.-, ho was taking pack-horses along a muddy bush track to pet a load. Leaving the horses to feed he wandered off. to we what bird was uttering the best notes of the forest. He found a pair of thrushes at the bottom of a gully, with park-like tree ferns and giant limber, and every time he passed that place, he paid them a visit in llieir beautiful homo. They nested in trees, out of his reach, close to a email stream. They wove very tame. If lie kept very still, and imitated their notes, they came down and had a pood look at him, hopping about like robins in search of worms, and giving exhibitions of their vocalisation.

Up on the range, and all about, he could hear the huias' cheerful notes. Learning to imitate them, he called down ail huias within sound on to tho trees. Years afterwards at Poriim, a verandah with a tree in it was wire-netted, and six huias were kept there for about a year. They were young birds that had been snared by Maoris. They baoame charmingly tame. In the morning, at times they Woke the household with long-drawn out whistling notes. They flew down on to the children's shoulders to be fed. A Maori chief at the pa brought supplies of huhu grubs and rotten timber, which tho male chiseled with his sharp, straight, hill, to enable the. female, with her curved but. to pick out the grubs. Sometimes one of them llirpw,, grubs in the air for the other- to catch. When, /supplies of grubs were short, pieces of. raw mutton were offered an accepted. The following soring, they began to pine, and three of them died, and the remaining three were taken by the children up oil’ to tho top of the range and liberated in the forest. Air Rutherfurd concludes:—“Lovely feathered pets, doomed to destruction by our so-called civilisation! Peace to their ashes! Boys and girls, study Nature first hand. It is useful and -fascinating. If you do so, you will learn to help to preserve the remnants , of. the beautiful bird life in these islands, your adopted country, once part of a mighty continent, now outposts in the great Pacific Ocean.”

As the grey warbler is coming about city and suburban hedges now, to charm people with its trilling song, notes on its position in the country, and on some of its characteristics, by Mr J. G. Myers, and Air E. Atkinson, "Wellington, are appropriate. "They state that this plainly dressed little N c,w ..Zealand bird has adopted itselt to the conditions of settled areas, in some places to such an extent as to become independent of the native forests. ‘ As a result its services to agriculture rather than to forestry have been greatly increased, and its eggs are more liable to find a place in collections of small birds’ eggs -bought indscriminately by local bodies.

Describing the grey warbler’s characters, those naturalists write: “All may recognise this bird without difficulty, by its sober grey plumage, relieved by spots of white visible in The tail when it is expanded, to aid the fluttering of this little insect-hunter at tho tips of twigs too slender to support its fairy weight. The nest is even less mistakable ; it should be confused with the work of no other turd in New Zealand. It is a covered structure, often hung from a slender twig, but seldom pendulous. The opening in the side, somewhat nearer the top than the bottom, is so small as hardly to admit more than the tip of a finger, and it often is shadowed by a small porch. The other wise capacious interior is almost filled with tho softest feathers, in which lie tiny pmk speckled eggs. Few -birds are so exclusively insectivorous as the grey warbler. When the Canterbury colonists regarded as pests all birds except the truly destructive ones they bad imported from England. Mr T. H. Potts brought forward as proof of tho grey warbler's innocence, a nest built by a pail' in a heavily fruiting red currant bush. The birds actually bad to push aside the ripe fruit when they entered the portal of their nest, but not a currant was taken,

The fern-bird, which has a dull, reddish costume,’a long toil; and pleasant notes, is not often .mentioned in this column, because, perhaps, -of its shyness, rather than of its rareness, although it certainly is not as plentiful as it was in the early daysAlessrs Myers and Atkinson describe it as a recluse. It lias practically only ono habitat, tho densest swamp and the uuckest hillside bracken, but it is seen less frequently in the bracken than its popular name suggests. It is believed to bo “practically entirely insectivorous.” In North Auckland, it seems to be known commonly as tho swamp robin.

A correspondent who has spent a few days’ holiday at Lake Pukaki. South Canterbury. has sent a description and an inquiry dealing with old time benches that run around the lake, rising to a height, of between 7Dft a.nd 80ft, or 80ft. The honchos, apparently, are evidence of levels at which the waters of the lake stood in remote periods. The lake, apart from tho raised benches, has a deep interest geographically on account of the presence at its southern end of the accumulations of a moraine piled up by one of the great Pleistocene glaciers that covered a large part of the South Island. The Taieri moraine is the largest, and most important pile of glacial drift in Now Zealand It forms the range of hills that bound the eastern side of the Taieri Plains. It was accumulated by an ice-sheet. The Pukaki moraine was left by a valley plainer and it has the distinction of being the largest valley-moraine in New Zealand. With smaller moraines that adjoin, it, is represented by glacial drift, on three sides of the lake, about 58 miles long, and from a quarter of a mile to more than three miles wide.

At the southern end of Lake Tekapo, north of Lake Pukaki, there is a moraine about 10 miles long and two miles and nhalf wide at its widest part. It is less massive than the Pukaki moraine. Between the lakes there are two other moraines. One of these, the Balmoral moraine, is stated by Professor J. Park to be an extension of the Tekapo moraine. The other, by the Maryhum moraine, ssemn to have been formed by a part of the Tasman Glacier that overflowed the Pukaki Basin. Another notable, moraine lies about three miles south-west of Oa.pe Campbell, two miles from the sea. It is on the western slopes of (ho Chalk Range, In place® it is BCoft above sea level. It may be traced for almost three miles. Professor Park ascribes it to a glacier which flowed north from the Kaikoura Mountains, and which. he believes, was one of the more ancient of tho Pleistocene glaciers.

In the latest estimates at which birds fly. several birds well known in Now Zealand, although not natives of this dominion, aro dealt with. Rooks have been recorded doing 30 miles an hour against, a head wind, and up to 45 miles in' more favourable conditions. .Starlings have done from 43 to 48i miles in calm weather, gannets 48 miles, ducks 47.8 miles, pheasants 53.8 miles, quail 57 miles in passage, dotterels 46 to 504 miles, and the golden plover, which comes to New Zealand yearly from Siberia, 60 miles. The most famous migrant, as far ns long distance flying is concerned, the godwit, which should be arriving in New Zealand bays and estuaries from Siberia now, has not been timed. The normal speed of a carrier pigeons seems to be from 30 to 36 miles an hour, but when homing it does 60 miles or more. A carrier pigeon in England covered 82 miles, ju good weather at the rate of 71 miles au hour. A speed of 501 miles an hour was recorded for a carrier from the Sciliy Isles to Wiltshire, 215 miles. In a race from Banff to Hampshire in favourable weather. 62 miles an hour was recorded.

“Wood pigeons are, very rare here at present, but, kakas, which frequent the higher country, may be seen in flock? ot from three to six or more,” Mr 11. Macpherson wrote from To Whaiti, Ureweia Country, on September 9. “Tuis and bellbirds are present in great numbers. Near Jluatahuna. and about 14 miles- from this place. I saw two flocks of native canaries, nr while heads, popokolea. (wo weeks ago. There were about 12 in each flock. Parrakeels. porete, are scarce. 1 have heard only one in the past four weeks."