OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 26 August 1908, Page 85

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN.

FOR SENIORS AND JUNIORS. j (Conducted by Magocsteb, to -whom all communications must be addressed.) BIRD ROUTES. At the meeting of the Otago Institute on Tuesday evening short papers were read by Dr Fulton on our New Zealand birds, and by Mr Skey, the latter one of the oldest members of the society, his paper being on the metric system, a subject I may have something to say upon one of these days. At my request, tjhe doctor has put his short paper at my disposal, and I am giving the greater portion of it,- and for several reasons. Kew Zealan-d liaen** »lways been, the same shape and has not always had the same elevation ac now. Again, we have migrants coming here, euch as the cuckoos and the godwit, and these seem to. point to a land connection in the dim past. And this brings to mind a note I have on "Bird-lines." A writer in Bibby's Annual says something like this: "Migrants have followed the same birdline for a thousand generations or more, unless blown out of their course by irresistible gales. Cuckoos pass from England to Egypt,- but follow roughly a route-re-sembling the letter Z— soo miles east v 1500 miles south, and 2000 or co east and southeast ; but this is a distance about 1000 miles longer than neces3a.ry. r TVhy do they travel this extra distance? In prehistorio times the different land formation, favoured this rouce; but though the land has been j submerged in places, and so on, the birds still keep to their original route." j Again, I want you to notice the doctor's [ paper because he points out some of the j differences between the avi-fauna of the ' two islands. And one point more— but here I a-m. on delicate ground. ..We have no North Island robins- or tomtits in our Museum,, and" it appears that our birds — some, at anyrate — are so closely protected that one may b& fined £25 for having one. Dr Hooken, the chairman, very naively remarked, in effect : "It is very sad^that we haven't specimens. Cannot somfT of you take steps to get specimens suo rosa?" This was said in so sympathetically serious a manner that the equilibrium of most present was upset. Now, I'll not say anything about "sub rosa," but if any North; Islanders can by accident come across a ] good specimen or two of each and send them to me, perhaps a way may be found , of spiriting them into the Museum" -when j the curator (Dr Benham) isn't there, so that he will see them accidentally. I don't think he will throw them out. It will be a matter for great regret if any of our birds die out and our principal j museums do not possess epecimens. Already, I think, some of our South' Island, birds have become extinct; but I am not quite sure. There is another rea»on why the doctor's letter should be read — he protests against the multiplication of genera. Dr Benham, { I think, also objects to this needless division and subdivision because of trivial differences. "One of the most interesting features in connection with our native birds is the fact that we have a number of genera with' well-marked representative species strictly limited in habitat to one or other of our islands, showing clearly that for a. very considerable period there has been an impassable gulf between north and south. Geological research, submarine surveying, and a study of our bird migrants have made it certain that at one time New Zealand was a small birdless group of islands, and that at the beginning of the Tertiary era the land was gradually elevated into a great oeninsula, or continent, stretching a,way up to the north-west and joining £he mainland at New Guinea. Birds from the north gradually spread down and populated these islands, remaining cut off and isolated at the close <5i the Eocene period, when the upper portion of the peninsula or continent again sank, our islands alone remaining. Whether the extremities of our two islands were two mountains with a deep valley between, or whether the islands rose again simultaneously, with this great gulf 18 miles across left between I do not know — no doubt others present will toll you ; but the fact remains that for a very long time the North Island birds have been completely separated from those in the South Island, and have thus had opportunities to develop along different lines, . forming distinct species. Dr Marshall showed us how a great mountain chain extended away up into the tropics to Samoa, a chain with volcanic fiction at each extremity and a tremendous gulf all along its ba. c c. The existence of this great cha-in makes it much easier for us to understand the marvellous flight of our 'migratory birds from tropical and even northern' latitudes to our shores. That this chain extended onwards and included the South Island is. I think, shown by the immediate migration to our southern limits of the two cuckoos, but that the gulf between the islands is of more recent formation, but still of great antiquity, is evidenced by the fact tha£ many species to be found in the South Island are unknown 'in the North, and vice, versa. ' Now, I wish to-night to say a few words about some of the species so interesting from a geological and -from an ornithological point of view. Tak« our two crow 6, for instance. Here is our North Island representative well marked with its blue wattles, the southern orange wattled, yet the birds are so like that" no one would hesitate to pronounce them of common origin. The North Island thrush has its throat whitish, while the' South Island has the tz'oat olivaceous, and the birds, though very liko. are quite distinct species. The North Island tomtit is white-breasted, the South Island yellow-breasted. The North Island robin, now very rare, is of a lighter colour on the legs and feet and is more mottled than our bird,, which has a trace of yellowish white on the breast ; the northern birds lacks this yellow tinge, being white. There has' been much discussion over our fantails owing to the fact that iv the South Island, where both species have been common, they have interbred. The black has always been very rare in the North Island — in fact, any found there have been considered stragglers ; , but in our island it has been fairly common, that ' union nests ' have been found with some of the chicks pied and some of them pure Mack points to a hybrid union of two distinct- species. I confess I cannot quite follow Captain Hutton when he says 'it i» well known that

the j>ied and black fantails pair, together an<THliat • the union "is fruitful, but the young, it is stated, never resemble partly one parent and partly the other, which is usually the cese with hybrids. Sometimes the young in a nest are all pied and sometimes there are several black ones. The pied ar« more numerous than ' the black, but all apparently are nurebred.' The huia and stitch bird are confined strictly to the North Island, and we do not; know if they ever ocurred in the South. The rook wren (a very feeble flier) and the brown creeper are alone found in the South Island. That we have a fern bird, a very feeble; flier, common to both islands, and' another distinct species confined to the South Island and the Snares, and third species on the Chafchams, shows the geological- connection and moit recent separa*