IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21694, 12 July 1932, Page 2

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

GREY KIWIS. LORD ROTHSCHILD’S COLLECTION. By J. Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S. As possessor of the largest collection of kiwi skins, skeletons and eggs in the world, Lord Rothschild had authority for naming a species the western kiwi. Apteryx occidentnlis, but there has been, and still is, much doubt whether this species can be recognised. As described by Lord Rothschild, the western kiwi is like the grey kiwi, Apteryx Oweni, but is somewhat larger, and the black bars on the grey costumes are bolder and more distinct. Sir Walter Buller accepted Lord Rothschild’s new species, but Lord Rothschild himself, writing to me, a few years ago, showed that he was not sure of his ground. “My series is very complete,” he -wrote. “The only point in classification not elucidated yet is the exact status of my occidentalis. It is remarkably different from the true Oweni, but in some places occurs together with that species and with the great spotted kiwi, Apteryx Haasti, so it may be a hybrid between the two latter species. This could only be settled by breeding them in captivity.”

It is probable that all these grey kiwis are forms of one species, Apteryx Oweni, named in honour of Sir Richard Owen, a famous anatomist, who first described the kiwis’ anatomy in' detail, and who expressed surprise at their strange make-up. They seemed to him to have borrowed their heads from the long-billed waders, their legs from the scratching birds, and their wings from a group that includes the ostrich and the emu. It may be concluded that the western kiwi is- identical with the dappled grey kiwi, Apteryx Oweni, known to miners as the little grey kiwi, an inhabitant of districts that lie west of the Southern Alps. Its plumage is soft, furry, and fluffy.

Before kiwis were protected, and when muffs were in fashion, the hunting of grey kiwis for muff-making became almost a vocation. Miners favoured grey kiwis for the pot. Seventy-one years ago, a correspondent wrote to an English journal: “ I met a stranger who had travelled in New Zealand. Of course, I was curious about Apteryx Oweni. I showed him a figure of the bird, and tried to make him comprehend its value. ‘Good!’ he said; ‘I know it well; .we had four of them in one pie.’ ” A kiwi-hunter boasted that up to the end of 1871 he had killed about 2200 grey kiwis and southern brown kiwis. The statement seems greatly exaggerated, but the boast may not have beeii absolutely an idle one. The grey kiwi was very plentiful. After many years of protection, it is plentiful in places. There is no reason to fear that it is nearing extinction.

The mating season of the sexes extends over several months. The white eggs, about four inches and a-half long, may be found, but not easily, at almost any time of the year. The site selected for a home, according to Mr T. H. Potts, i» a dark dungeon under the spreading roots of a tree, in a log, under a rock, or in a cleft or fissure, occasionally under a clump of tussock or under an overhanging atone on the slope of a forested hill. At the Head of a gully near the Buller River 26 individuals were caught in one community. They lived in a dense, sunless forest, amongst undergrowth almost always dripping wet. An egg was found in a hole made by the roots of a manuka tree concealed by grass.

The young are described as “ quaintlooking little animals, with not too much of the savour of youth about them; they are exact rainatures of the adult." Mr Potts adds: “There is no young state of plumage with them, and none of that half-pronounced variation in tone, or tint of discolouration, that calls for the nice discrimination of the practised ornithologist when questions of age have to be settled. In winter and summer alike they adhere to their sober colours with quaker-like pertinacity.” A chick, taken from its egg, weighed two ounces.

Several albino members of the species have delighted collectors. Amongst short grass at the edge of swamp at Martin’s Bay, South Westland, an almost perfect albino was caught. The whole of its plumage was creamy white, stained on the back with grey. The National Australian Museum, Sydney, has a greyish-white skin, streaked with brown. The strange variation in the plumage is demonstrated by four individuals caught near Collingwood, each with a white spot on each side of the throat.

Sir Walter Buller kept grey kiwis in his aviary in Wellington. He was impressed by the great gentleness of their disposition. In this, they differed from the brown kiwis of the North Island and the South Island. Whenever two male brown kiwis were placed together they fought. Several grey kiwis, confined together, crowded like pigs, and were on the best possible terms, huddling as if to seek warmth from one another. They were so docile that they allowed themselves to be handled almost without resistance. They seldom followed the practice of other kiwis of striking with their feet. They expressed alarm or annoyance merely by snapping their mandibles.

The great spotted kiwi, Apteryx Haasti, referred to by Lord Rothschild, who has 26 skins of the species in his museum at Tring, England, is somewhat like the grey kiwi, but is larger, more robust, and brownish-grey, spotted with yellowishwhite. The spots arranged regularly, form broad light bands. The species has a slightly curved bill, while the grey kiwi has a straight bill. The colours of the great spotted kiwi vary. Some individuals are almost black. The spots sometimes are chestnut. Lord Rothschild has two partial albinos, male and female. A live female sent by Sir Walter Buller to Lord Rothschild survived the voyage to England, but died at Cambridge, before it reached Tring. It was mounted and is in the Tring Museum. A male and a female arrived at Tring safely, but died in the aviary there.

Most of Lord Rothschild’s specimens of groat spotted kiwis came from the Heaphy Ranges, which stretch near the coast on the north-west of the South Island. In that district, and. near the Buller River, great spotted kiwis are plentiful enough. They find there ample supplies of earthworms, som«T prodigious in size. Their only enemies are stoats and -weasels. Lord Rothschild has three eggs of great spotted kiwis, collected in the Heanhy Ranges. All are very pale green. The largest, sJin long, 3jin broad, was taken from under a female, which sat beneath a tussock, A dog discovered the male under a tussock a fair distance away.

The South Island has three clearly defined species, the grey kiwi, the great spotted kiwi, and tlie large brown kiwi, Apteryx australis, called rowi by Maoris, big kiwi by miners, all dwelling in the same type of habitat, following the same habits, living under the same conditions, observing the same rules of life in kiwi communities. The North Island has only one species. Apteryx Mnntelli, usually reddish-brown. This species also varm" remarkably in colour. A large number of North Island kiwis have been found with blackish pliimage. These led to another controversy on species and names, some systematists claiming that they should be placed by themselves as Apteryx Bulleri. The opinion now is that they are dark forms—melanistic—of the comrpon red-dish-brown species. Another fashion amongst North Island kiwis is a deeper red plumage. Some of these costumes are brick-red, inclining to ginger. The Maoris knew them as kiwi-kura, red kiwis, and prized them more highly than common kiwis, but less than the rare exquisite albinos that occasionally came into their hands.

Every article in the Scientific Monthly, New York, for June, is worth reading, keeping, and studying. The opening article is by Lord Rutherford on the origin of the gamma rays, a penetrating type of X-rays. _ Professor H. N. Russell, Princeton University, shows how the spectroscope. as the master-key of science, is revealing the universe: the influence of environment and heredity is discussed philosophically by Dr A, S. Pearse; and other articles deal with the magnetic field around the earth and the oddities of the ocean. The 12 articles are well written, varied in theme, and educational.