IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19182, 27 May 1924, Page 2

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

THE FANTAIL'S FLIGHT. By J Dhummonu, F.L.S., F.Z.B. A statement by Dr Casey A. Wood, NewYork, who has seen many birds in many lands, that he would give the blue ribbon tor artistic gymnastics to New Zealand'* fantails, which ho saw in Auckland, has led Mr F. \V. Edwards, of Auckland, to send itilcresting notes on the fantail's quick, erratic movements op. the wing. "I often havo wondered about the peculiar flight of these little birds, and have watched them to find some reason for tho floating, dropping, darting, eccentric movements," he writes. "One day, seated in a wagon drawn up in the shade of a line of Pinus I irsignis trees, the mystery was solved. A fantail was flying in close proximity. Suddenly, in a searchlight shaft of sunlight, coming through the trees, a tiny fly was seen. As if the bright light had confused the fly, it hesitated. The fantail darted in, and made his killing. This accounts for the gymnastics in the fantail's flight. They are in pursuit of flies so small, as to be invisible to the naked eye, under ordinary daylight conditions. Only when the fly came into the bright shaft of light coming through the troes was it visible. I watched carofully for some time after, and noticed that a small fly invisible when in the surrounding gloom became clearly apparent when it crossed tho bright shaft of light. Knowing tho reason for the gymnastics, I many times have watched carefully, but r ever havo been' able again to see the species of fly tho fantail pursued. I have seen a fantail dart from its perch on a stockyard fence, and catch and kill a common housefly. This killing was not done for food, as at the moment of killing, tho housefly was dropped, and the fantail returned to its perch. There wero no gymnastics about that flight; it was a straight dart and a return to the tence. For soma r/oason, +he fantail has a pronounced feel ing against the housefly, and often indulges his spite against that insect." Mr Edwards continues: "They came around my place, Mangaiti, Waitoa Plains, in great numbers, always the pied variety—a black one was rare —and in the early mornings the hawthorn hedges rang with the music of their song. Fancy hundreds of them singing at the same time, Biid you may get some idea of the volume of musio they bring forth. When yon heai a single bird singing, its song does not amount to muoh, but when a number of them are at it you are in for a treat. Going down beside the river from the grove of kahikatca trees, I heard a great singing. Whatever are tho fantails singing for at this*timo ol the day'/ Surely they don't mistake it for esrly morning? I thought, and they ait» ' sirging to beat the band.' Suddenly the> ceased, and immediately there commenced a flight of innumerable frntails; it looked like an enormous flight of starlings, and I noticed that they were going due north. From this on, not a fantail was to be seen on the plains. They had left in that great flight; not a solitary individual was left, and for months afterwards never a oiv» was seen. One day one appeared. f thought: ' Hullo, you have come back, havo you? Where are vour mates. You are going to stay nil spring and rear your families, and then off vou go. I wonde) vhoio you have been all these months. J think you go away to the bush .ind stop (here, through the summer; but you never sing when yov; are in the bush. You aro a bit of a mystery, but, perhaps somebody else has observed your habits, and we will gel more light on your movements.'" An Auckland correspondent, "J. W.," who has cruised in Caribbean waters in a dug-out canoe, in small schooners, and in West Indian fruit steamers, and has watched flying-fishes, states that he never lias seen them rise 20ft from tne surface, and he does not believe taat their flight exceeds 200yds. "From the low free-board of a canon or a trading vessel," he writes, "an observer has a good view of their movements ; they usually fly at heights from just the surface to 2ft or 3ft above. It may not be actual flight, but it looks like flying to me. Travellers in the Pacific know that flying-fishes sometimes alight on the forward decks of steamers whose sides are almost 20ft out of the water; but, as far as my observations show, this happens at r.ight only, and, I am inclined to think, onlv when the deck is brought near the surface of the sea by tho heave of a swell. I am ufable to say whether or not they are attracted by lights. There is, or was, a common belief amongst sailors that fly-ing-fishes can keep in motion in the air as long only as their fin s are damp. The decision of investigators seems to be that fly-ing-fishes do not fly and that should settie it; but 1 have seen them emerge from the sea within arm's length, and I'd swear their fins were going at the rate of knots. If the fins are not used for progress in the air I do not think they are adjusted for volplaning, like a bird's wings. The movie camera may help to solve the problem." [ ' ' The same correspondent, has sent the foliowinc extract from "Alone in the Caribbean." an account of a cruise in the sailing canoe Yakabop, bv A. F'euger, published in 1919:—Sailing, a s I did seated onlv a few inches above the water, I had an excellent onportunity to observe tha flyingfishes which rose almost continually from under the bow of the canoe. Although tney were smaller than those I have seen in channels off the Californian coast -they were seldom more than about 9in loner their flight did not seem to be appreciably shorter. Their Kneed in the water immediately before they emerge must be terrific, for they come .out as if shot from a submarine cataput. Their gossamer wings, vibratin-r frrm the translated motion of the powerful tail, make the deception of flicrht most real. I spent many hours watching these singular fish. While there, cin be no doubt that they do not actually fly. it seems almost incredible that a fish con hurl itself from the water with sufficient force to rise to a height of 20ft or more and soar for a distance of from 3Ooft to 400 ft, perhaps further." In trapping blackbirds and song-thrushes in baited traps, Mr R. Nairn, Lincoln road, Christchureh, has noted that in almost every case it is the female that is caught. He finds (hat others who use traps for the same purpose have the same experience. Ho accounts for this not by ascribing superior cunning to the males, but by their unselfishness. A male of either of those snecies, when ho sees a dainty, calls his niato, in order that she should have tho first, bite. If it happens to be a cherry or a strawberry in a trap, she is the victim. Having lost his mate, the male soon finds another, and ?he, probably, is a trap and meets the same fate. Returning to his home in America from New Zealand, Dr Casey Wood was told that red-tailed tropic birds, or bosun birds, occasional visitors to New Zealand shores, almost always alight on vessels at night, not because 'hey are exhausted or are blown aboard, but because they are attracted by the vessel's lights usually they fly direct for a lantern, aro stunned, fall on deck, and find difficulty in rising. In a letter to New Zealand friends, written from Suva, Dr Casey Wood sets out a curious but pretty theory that these birds are not lured to destruction by ihe fascination of the li"ht itself, but see in the lantern and its surrounding brilliance an entrance into daylight from the enveloping gloom. Ho writes: "Wo all know that a bird in a darkened barn or other enclosure easily discovers and (lies through a hole or other opening' that gives in daylight, It is not that it is attracted by the light-area of the oxit but it visualises and seeks, by means of tho opening, the free air of heaven beyond. Thus it is -with certain birds at sea; they expect to fly through the light, not at it. The dark or dimly-lighted canopy of the represents to them a sort of antechamber of tho day; the light at the masthead is one of, it may be, many openings through which the great diurnal outdoors may bo reached. It is not more vain that the beliefs about the causes of daylight, and darkness devoutly held by educated and polished races of men not many years u«c. 1 cannot recollect that Gaetke, or any other observer of lighthouse tragedies, has explained them in this fashion, but (he theory I sounds feasible to me. At any rate, 1 give it for what it may be worth. "Is there in this search for light evidence of an inferior avian intelligence:"' Dr Casey Wood continues. "We know that there are sea-birds which follow or fly about ships,, and which are net attracted by lights in this manner—gulls, petrels, and albatrosses, for instance. 'lhe albatro.-a does not care in the least for the radiance about a vessel's lantern. The light arouses no longings in that Rrcat bird's breast, or it knows that the light is a solid, impenetrable body, not to be trifled with; or is it too suspicious to take a cnance, or does it simply never think about the subiect at all? As for us, who aro so profoundly sure that the universe was made for our convenience and delectation, what can wc actually know about such mysteries?"