BIRD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2359, 11 May 1899, Page 9

BIRD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND.

Bt F. R. C.

(" Australian Pastoralists' Review.") To the naturalist the birds of New Zealand form the subject of one of th© most interesting chapters in the whole history of the realm of Nature. Look at the country and consider what it is, and what for countless centuries — probably for millions of years — it has been. There is not on the face of the globe an equally large area of land so remote from any other land. The nearest analogy is Madagascar, which is' larger, but nearer to its continent, and, though long separated from it, does not bear evidence of being quite so isolated a country as New Zealand. It is hard to say what is. the continental area to which New Zealand belongs. Its affinity with- Australia, judged by its plants and live creatures, is very remote. It possesses no marsupials, nor, indeed, any land mammals, save such as accompany man in his wanderings. We mips the snakes and tl.e gum trees and the cheerful croaking of the frogs. Almost all the things which are characteristic of Australia are wanting in New Zealand. Parrots there are, but : most of them are strangely different from their • Australian congeners, while the general run • of the forest trees and flowering plants is so absolutely different, and the grasses, too, look " so absolutely different that you see at once that you are in another country. New Zealand possesses half a dozen softwood pine 3, the • heavy handsome foliage of which gives the forest an aspect entirely different from that of Australia. I only mention this to bring home to the reader the fact that in general aspect the difference in external appearance between New Zealand and Australia is fully as great as between Australia and Europe. Take the whoie .range of Europe and compare it with North - America, which is twice as distant as New Zealand ib from Australia, and you see no such difference. The truth is that the isolation of New Zealand from Australia is of so old a date that the affinity between the two is very remote. Wallace in " Island Life " tells us ' that such as that affinity is, it is between New Zealand and Northern Queensland and New •Guinea rather than with temperate Australia, and that the union of the two districts took place at a remote period when North-eastern Australia had not yet received its supply of marsupials, which came in when Nature raised up from the ocean the strip of sea-bottom constituting South Australia and the Northern Territory, and so decreed the first federation ' between Eastern and Western Australia. One great feature common to the two countries is the possession of great struthious birds. It is ■true that our beat specimens are dead ; but . most well-ordered museumß possess a few moa skeletons, and we still have four living species of kiwi, a diminutive representative of the tribe which the first white men in New Zealand called the emu. Now the result of all this isolation" has been . the gradual production of strange forms of ■ bird life. New Zealand did not procure the moas from Australia, so far, at least, as we know.- They 'only mark the singular fact that though the northern hemisphere boasts few such, each great- land extension in the southern hemisphere possesses representa- • tives of this giant tribe. Thus Africa has the ostrich, South America the rhea, Madagascar had the epiornis, New Zealand the moa and • the kiwi, and the islands to the north of Aus- • tralia the cassowary. How these birds came ' to be so distributed remains a mystery, but it seems evident that they have, so to speak, radiated from some southern rather than from a northern centre. From the position in which countless bones are found, the moa j evidently lived both in the forest and in the open country, and one species at least was particularly fond of the seashore, where I ■ suspect he fed partly on the good things of the ocean. Some years ago I found the food of tho moa in a most unmistakable way v I had collected several sets of gizzard stones, easily identified by their lying with the skeleton. They were used as by the common hen for grinding up food, and run to about 41b or 51b of white quartz pebbles in each gizzard. Some of them I found in swamps embedded in pure peat, which had preserved the contents. In this mass it was not difficult to identify several plants belonging to the common herbage of the mountains about Dunedin ; thus the moa fed at large just as cows and sheep feed. The kiwi is a bird of different habits. He lives in dense forests, ' moves about at night, feeds on worms, which he draws out of the ground with his long • beak, and generally shuns everything and ' everybody. He is very handsome, and is like no other bird. His beak has nostrils at the ' tip instead of at the ba«e. Ho has no wings, which are represented by little spurs on his "• sides. The egg of the kiwi is monstrously large as compared with the bird, being sometimes sin long. The feathers somewhat reFemble emu feathers, but are finer and of • rich colour. The feathers of the moa have been found; they are double-shafted, like those of the emu. The moa's eggs, like those of the kiwi, are pure white. Of the^e, two or three perfect and several imperfect ones exist, besides which fragments of shell are easily obtained.•An egg dredged out of the auriferous banks of the Molyneux River has recently been rescued and placed in the Dunedin Museum. The moa was a bird of much heavier build than the ostrich, and its form again attests its long isolation. Something like 25 species are known to science by their skeletons. The truth is, that New Zealand must have been peopled by birds and cut off from the great world, to which it never has been joined since mammals were created. This is a strong assertion, but no trace of a mammal skeleton has ever been found save those of seals, whales, etc. Among the most interesting land birds of New Zealand are the rails. The most familiar of them is the pukeko or common redbilled coot. Maori tradition says that it was brought by their ancestors in a canoe, but, if there is any truth in this story, it only means that it was brought from the Kermadecs, the nearest Pacific island, at which some of the canoe voyagers who peopled New Zealand are believed to have touched. One of the most charming of the rail tribe is Ocydromus, of which there are several species. - This is variously known as the Maori hen, the woodhen, and by other names. It is, however, now more usually called by its native name, the weka. It is the size of a small pullet, and possesses a sharp, strong beak, and has a bright, tawny plumage. One species is nearly black, and pure white albinos have been captured. It is a very inquisitive •bird, as anyone knows who camps near a forest, for these birds will come about a camp, enter the tents, and steal anything their strength will permit them to carry, with an especial weakness for appropriating spoons and other bright objects. The Maoris have many sayings about the weka, which seem to recognise its wisdom and cunning. Though it has fine wings it is absolutely without power of flight. It lives on the plains, in lcrub, and in forest. I suppose that in course b& time the tendency which rails have of taJt-

ing cover rather than flying has led in the case of this forest rail to a, total abandonment of the habit. At one time it was everywhere plentiful, but the dogs, and perhaps the poison of the rabbits, have caused fearful destruction in grazing districts. I have sometimes taken cover while duck shooting among sedge and thistle, and in half an hour have found myself surrounded on all sides by dozens of these curious and handsome creatures whose rather stately appearance rather suggested a past geological age. Their confiding fearlessness has led_ to their destruction in many districts, but in others they are common. Not many years ago they were still in the habit of occasionally wandering among the houses in the city of Wellington. A certain amount of sport is sometimes got out of this bird by coursing it with terriers, but the poor creature .is too confiding and usually comes to grief without a proper run. It is eaten by bush people, but thi? is sometimes dangerous near,, civilisation, as it is a carrion eater. It is a good ally in exterminating young rabbits, but falls easily before its rival, the ferret. Being very fat it gives a quantity of oil, which hushmen use as a specific for rheumatism. The Maoris have many sayings about the weka, thus : " The weka is a knowing bird ; if once snared hCwill not be caught again." There are several other kinds of rail, besides some lartje extinct forms, but by far the most interesting of these is the great takahe (Notornis Mantelli). Two specimens of this bird were obtained more than 50 years since, before which it was only known by a few bones obtained in the North Island. These are in the British Museum. It was long supposed to be extinct, but one was captured in 1878, and sold to the Dresden Museum for £120. Last year one was captured by a dog, and brought out of the forest to a man walking on the shores of La T re Te Anau. This was secured for the Dunedin Museum by Government for £100, the patriotic owner refusing a larger offer made by an English collector. By the way, the same thing happened with the moa's egg. A Dunedin citizen got it for £50, and handed it over to the museum for less, despite a foreign offer of £100. The four specimens of Notornis were obtained in four distinct parts of the vast alpine forest whicli covers the south-western angle of New Zealand, from the sea to a height of 3000 ft. Two of them were obtained on large mountain-islands in the sounds of Otago ; two others on the eastern side of the range.- Maori tradition tells that they were formerly hunted there. Though now rare, it is evident that they are not extyict, as the last one is a young bird. The Notornis ma} 7 be described as a large, heavy, handsome red-billed coot. Like the kiwi it is a very shy bird, inhabiting vast, dense, swampy forests.

Among the familiar birds of the old and new world which are apparently missing from New Zealand are the crows. Closer investigation, however, shows that the tribe is not wholly unrepresented. The crow, like the kiwi and the takahe, is too modest to place himself much in evidence. The blue wattled crow (Glaucapis Wilsoni) inhabits the dense forests in the mountain ranges of the North Island, while the orange wattled crow (G. Cinerea) lives in similar localities in the south. They are small graceful birds, loving shade and solitude, but not particularly timid. They are unmistakably crow.s, and those who have tried the experiment state that the flesh is disagreeably crow-like in flavour. The bird is furniched with a highly-coloured fleshy wattle on each side of its beak, in one case orange and the other blue. In one important respect they arc ahead of commoner crows, in that the North Island bird at least has several beautiful notes, and is in fact a true songster. The circumstance of a genus being represented by distinct species in the two islands is by no means uncommon, and it seems to show that these two iplands have been long separated. There is a thrush buried in the forests of each island which^ has preserved its thrushlike appearance very creditably. As this bird is a true forest bird, and appears to be in course of extermination, it is but little known to tho colonist"? ; but Sir Walter Buller, the leading authority on the birds of New Zealand, gives it first place among songsters. This bird — Pio Pio — gives its name to Milford Sound, which the Maoris call Piopio-tahi, or " one thrush." The circumstance, which gave rise to this name, is now forgotten. The bush robin is another instance of different insular species.

The South Island robin is a most charming and companionable bird. When one lights a fire in the bush the robins are sure to come about, and have a look at the strangers, hopping on the ground within a yard or two of the human intruder, then flying off and returning for another look. A friend of mine, poEsessed of unusual patience, used to hold his arm rigid xintil the robin sat on his finger ; 1 have never seen this, but I have certainly seen them within a few inches of my foot. The robin has a singular, and as yet unexplained, habit, or, rather, instinct. If you throw a lighted match on the ground he will make it his business to put it out. I have tried this over and over again in widely different localities, and there is no doubt about it. The robin cautiously approaches the burning match, then suddenly dashes at -it, seizes it in his bill, and either whacks it on the ground or flies up in the air with it. I have heard the beak frizzle as the match burned down to it, but the same robin came religiously back for the next one. One of my boys tried the experiment a short time since, but tne flame was so large that the robin seemed nervous, but he took up a small stick and jerked it towards the flame, as if to quench it in this way. I have not Ecen this habit mentioned in any book. Sir Walter Buller had evidently never heard of it when he wrote his great work on the birds of New Zealand. Mr A. D. Bell, of Shag Valley, who first mentioned it to me, suggests that the robin, acts thus under the impression that he is killing a glow-worm, which inhabits dark gullies and caverns, and may form part of the robin's food, but whatever may be the explanation, nobody need doubt the fact, as the experiment may be tried in any bit of bush in southern New Zealand. I have never heard whether the North Island species (Petrseca longipes) behaves in the same way.

A nurseryman, of Waikiwi, near Invercaigill, has imported a species of gooseberry tree that has no thorns.

From New Zealand. Reefton, New Zealand, Nov. 23, 1896.

I ani very pleased to slate that since I took the agency of Chamberlain's medicines the sale has been very large, more especially of the Cough Remedy. In two years I have sold more of- this particular remedy than of all other makes for the previous five years. As to its efficacy; I have been • informed by scores of persons of the good results they have received from it, and know its value from the use -of it in my own household. It is so pleasant to take that we have to place the bottle beyond the reach of the children. E. J. SCANTLEBUByEor eale by. all leading cliemiata,