IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21640, 10 May 1932, Page 2

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

THE HARRIER HAWK. CRAFTY AND COWARDLY. By J. Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S, The harrier hawk, true to its type, is the terror of many a country fowl yard, but it does not always succeed, even against amiable and peaceable hens. This was demonstrated recently in Taupo. The incident is recorded by Mr J. P. May, whose next dooy neighbour keeps poultry, amongst them a bantam hen, which had four chicks, a week old. In full and close view of many spectatars, Mr May states, a harrier suddenly swooped down on one of the chicks. With the chick in its talons, it succeeded, although experiencing difficulty, in reaching the top of a five-foot fence. There was an immediate commotion, hens and roosters rushing about and making a continual din. The bantam hen, the most interested party in the affair, made ‘css noise than the others, but was not laggard in deeds.

The harrier, for a time, sat on the fence, feeling the exertion of carrying its prey, or contemplating its next move. Cackling shrilly, the bantam rose from the ground and flew towards the harrier, alighting at its side. A fierce fight resulted. With outstretched wings and with feathers flying, they fought on the slender fence, bill to bill. For several minutes neither gave way, the harrier grasping the frightened chick, the bantam trying to release it. Finally, amidst cheers from the specators, the harrier suddenly backed away and flew high into the air, leaving the bantam and the chick unharmed. Dropping to the ground, followed by the chick, the bantam triumphantly and majestically strutted to the other members of her family.

For deeds like this the harrier has earned general condemnation. It has few friends. If it has qualities, they are lost in its ruthless and cowardly conduct. When Mr W. H. Poole, of Tauranga, asked in this column if anybody had seen a harrier kill a pheasant, scores of letters poured in from many parts of the Dominion, condemning the harrier utterly and giving many instances of its ferocity. Mr Poole, one of the harrier’s few friends, stated that it was not a pheasant killer natmally, any more than a lion or a tiger was a natural man-eater. In those cases, he believed, the taste was acquired. “What chance,” he asked, “has an ordinary New Zealand harrier against the wit, pluck, and natural camouflage of a quail or a pheasant? I once moved to have harriers destroyed and a higher bonus paid for their feet. I bitterly regretted my folly. I started a campaign against a bird I now firmly believe to be the best friend of the sportsman and of the farmer. As a result, every type of predatory animal increased out of bounds, and only a few pheasants’ eggs were hatched.”

One of the strongest condemnations, came from Mrs G. Taylor, of Pukekaroro. She wrote: “Dozens of pheasants lived alongside my house. I have often seen harriers swoop down on young pheasants, fly to a stump, and pull them limb from, limb. The pheasants uttered no sound after the first despairing cries. After a harrier has satisfied its hunger the remainder of the bird is left on the grass near the stump. The harrier, sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by other harriers, returns every day until only the feathers remain.”

Female pheasants escape more easily than males, on account of their drab plumage, which is not so conspicuous, Mrs Taylor believes. Old male pheasants become wary, but half-grown' males and females too young to hide deeply in scrub often are caught. Mrs Taylor has lost half-grown chickens and large_ fowls. A white hen, with a family of chicks, called them into the scrub when a hawk appeared. Watching a few chains away, Mrs Taylor saw a small piece of white. The harrier also saw it. It was into the scrub in a twinkling. After a short, fierce fight, it flew off with the hen before it could be made to drop its prey.

• The Rev. W. J. Elliott, of Gisborne, has seen keen fights between harriera and male pheasants. In most cases the harriers lost. At Whangarei he saw a harrier fatally wound a male pheasant by spiking it in the eye twice in quick succession. A Dargaville resident who, at dusk, counted ae many as 17 harriers near his cowshed, found that adult pheasants usually evade harriers in scrub, and that young pheasants have no chance against the enemy. On his property pheasants hatch their young amongst rushes, tea-tree, and cutty-grass. Less than one-tenth reach maturity. Their greatest enemies are cats, wild or partly wild, weasels, and hawks, and the greatest of these are hawks. Mr T. M’Gill, who has spent all his life in the country, saw a harrier fly off with a young turkey.

A pheasant’s death agony was witnessed by Mr A. J. Whiteside, Karaka road, Thames. Standing three yards off, ho saw a harrier bolding a female pheasant in its talons. The pheasant flapped its wings and struggled furiously. The harrier balanced itself, and tried to rise and fly. Jumping forward, Mr Whiteside struck the harrier with a stick and picked up the pheasant, which died five minutes later. The harrier’s talons had almost entered the pheasant’s heart. When Mr Whiteside’s fowls were killed by harriers he placed a game rooster in the fowlrun and the raids ceased.

A resident of Kai Iwi, north of Wanganui, has branded the harrier as the most destructive bird in New Zealand on game, young turkeys, ducks, and chickens. This opinion is based on more than GO years’ shooting in the . Dominion. A paddock on the Foxton side of the Manawatu River was described by him as like a slaughter yard, with the remains ot pukekos killed by harriers. They have often been seen to kill fowls and adult turkeys. They take some rabbits, but not many rats, in addition to rata they pick off new burn®.

It is only fair to state that the harrier has a friend in Mr P. S. Gee. of Milford, Waitemata County. One of the best shooting grounds for imported game in Taranaki he knew of was infested with harriers. He saw them kill fowls, rabbits, and a weasel. He never saw a harrier kill a pheasant, although he sawone begin to feed on a dead pheasant. He has seen many pheasants’ nests, but never one that a harrier had disturbed.

The valiant bantam at Taupo is not alone in defeating a harrier. Harriers are big hawks, but they are not courageous. They have been beaten ignominiously by quail-hawks, which are smaller than harriers, by oyster-catchers, by seagulls, and even by flocks of sparrows. Between Featherston and Martinborough a harrier was severely buffeted by sparrows. They dashed at the harrier in scores from all points at the same time. The harrier was such a poltroon that there was no spirit left in it. After a feeble defence, it rushed for cover in a piece of scrub. The sparrows crowded around noisily, as if they challenged it to come out and fight. It cowered there until the sparrows, tired of waiting, drew off.

None of the observers seems to have noted the chief characteristic — namely, craftiness. It sometimes pretends to pass over a victim.-but suddenly turns, wheels, and rushes to the ground noiselessly. It plucks the victim carefully, picking the bones clean. It delights to rob nests of ducks and pheasants. Disgusting in habits, offal and garbage are its chief food, but it takes lizards, cicadas, grasshoppers, crickets, and other insects, and rabbits, rats and mice. Sometimes it has regular meal tables, like openair restaurants. A meal table was found by Mr W. R. B. Oliver, director of the Dominion Museum. Wellington, on a flattopped shrub on the Poor Knights Islands, ft was strewn with dead birds’ bones. The victims there were the gentle dove-petrels. Some farmers may have a friendly feeling for the harrier, but most people who know it revile it.