IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2905, 17 November 1909, Page 11

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

t - ■» /THE SHpININGf-CtJCKOO. - ; ■ MANY ARRIVALS THIS YEAR.

(Bt Jamm Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) The shmiag3uc^^Sui;ly:.plentrful IS many Iparts ...ojt' the>i|^*npnion" nbw, i . < M^ the time has come for making obsery^ tions in- regard -"3o~4&~pa.rasitkal habits** As there is a, large army of observers at work, There M«ms to be reason to believe j that good results will be obtained this year. Amongst the notes that have come to hand lately are two — one by Mr Leonard F. Beeson, of Auckland, and one by Mr. R. C. Bruce, of, Ngaxuru, Hunterville, who corroborate the evidence given by Mr'; F- Gf. Sparrow, ac to adult shining cuckoos - sometimes - feeding their young; ripstead of leaving "this work to other birds. ■ Mr Beeson states that at Christmas time last ' year, when, he ,was troutfishing! ( near Matamata, in one of the tributaries of the upper reaches of the Waihou River, his a^e^ion was directed to a number of sh"inuig??cuckoos in a tall tea-tree bush on the 3>a£tk. r _ He heard/ the noise made by young I&irds when they are being led, .and then went into the bush to try> to ,ccc .what bird was attending to the young cuckoos. He found four young birds, "and saw two. adults, which were feeding the young. The young ones •were about * four days out of the nest, and could not fly very far.- s He followed and watched them for some time to be certain that his observations were right. The old birds seemed to be very anxious to •fd the young ones out of his sight, and eh 13 young ones maintained a chattering •-us they flew after the old birds. A. simi;3r; 3r experience J§, r^r^e4^-by...Mi: JBruce.; Us states that his manager and one of 'i'.e manager's sons (a. very observant lad a-jout- 14 years of '.age)- were riding on i 1 lie hilJs a* few weeks, ago, when the lad | «£\w several young cuckoos. They were j ;«ble to fty a short distance, and were accoinpzHvied by the parent, which seemed to be in charge of' them: ' Mr Bruce's manager was trained ''as a gamekeeper, and has a*i extensive knowledge of native' bird*," arid, he coiiKl iu>t have been mistaken. '"..'..

In recording th-3 arrival of fchininsj cuckoos at O-Wl-estbn, &r G. M. Powell j says : '" I watched one which was eagerly j eea.rchin«r for food. ,Jt seemed to be find-,! ing a fair supply, but it suddenly spread . its wings and worked, itself into a greatagitation. Then which I had 1 not seen previously,' flew -out of the scrub alongside. A. very demonstrative greet- , ing between the two /took place, and I . think' -that- food was- .-passed from one^ to the other — from the male to the female-, I presume. Last year I saw * the first of these birds on October '17. On that date-! there' were f cores ' of '"them in a very limited piece of country, amongst fallen , timber 'that had been" fired. I think that, they had /just landed, as J* did not see so mouy together afterwards." 4 j One day Mr A.. Go-JFell, of Waihutu,, | in the liokianga district,-, found a young * grey" warbler "lying defed > uudsr a tea tree. ' A few days afterwards he heard a ' plaintive piping from' the top 1 of the tree. The piping became stronger each day and more .constant, and c 'Mr, Fell climbed the] tree to see what was the matter. He found a grey *warbler's nest, with the head of a young shining cuckoo Sticking out of thelitt-le doorway, while a budding tail was bursting its way through the other side of the nest. The warblers J were fluttering around feeding the greedy nestling. After a time it began to fly, but it still expected to be fed, and it would sit screaming and fiutt-ering on 1 twig while the two anxious foster parents ' waited upon it. j

Another correspondent, who is acquainted with the ventriloquial properties in the shining cuckoo's notes, says that the bird does not whistle in the same way as it did years a.50. During the mating saason, he finds, it gives the second note, but afterwards does not use that note very much. The long-tailed cuckoo, according 'o his records, reaches the Patea district later than the shining cuckoo. He defcoribes the former «s a very shy bird, v.iich is hard to distinguish from the .-oliage of the trees. He believes that it .-ometimes uses the fantail'-s nest >n which .0 deposit its egg. A friend of his once >~.w a long-tailed cuckoo carrying a blue ♦".jg in its beak. His friend took this to be a thrush's egg. out the correspondent expresses an opinion that the bird carrying its own egg, to place it in another bird's nest.

Mr D. Doura, of Auckland, does not believe that the long-tailed cuckoo sucks the eggs of other birds. He writes as an observer who lias closely watched tlie habits of cuckoos in Australia. He has seen small birds building their nests, and he has been surprised to find the egg of a cuckoo in a strange nest before the owner of the nest has begun to sit on her eggs. He has never found a cuckoo's egg without the full complement laid by the owner. This he regards .as conclusive evidence that cuckoos do not destroy the eggs of birds which they wrong by usurping their nests. He, like many other observers, has frequently found a young cuckoo the only occupant of a nest that once contained several efpgs. but he points out that this is explained not by the theory that the adult cuckoo has eaten all the eggs except her own, but by tho belief that as tne young cuckoo jjrows strong ' it squeezes out the weaker chicks of the^ rightful owner. - A young cuckoo in Entflaiy] was found., in solitary possession oFanother bird's nest. As an expert- . ment, an egg, taken wflrnj from another ne«t, was introduced. . The cuckoo seemed to be irritated. It worked the egg on to its back, climbed the side of" the nest by mearis of its claws' and tipped the egg overboard. This operation has been recorded by the camera. Mrs J. Hemphill, jun., relate* an inci-

*dent 4hat came- -.under-*heir* notice.- <■• -^She. was living in the heart' of the' Bush at" Mapuna, North Wairoa, at the time, ar.d frequently . heard tlie. cuckoos'notes. , One of -them seemed to "^vour a small of native shrubs close to the house. A pair of warblers built a nest there, low enough to enable people to see JntOv it. T^ warblers- laid? tpi&e eggs_. ,Qne u«irnac^ when MrsTHeapphill^aiid^the <cj£ilnest-, they foußdjthat all the eggs had been broken, and that .a. strange 1 one had been deposited in the nest. When the egg was hatched they found that a young cuctoo had arrived.; " The iood the young nestJjng took/ was 1 most astonishing," Mrs Hemphill writes. " Besides the supplies the foster parents brought it, the children and myself would feed it several times a day. As it grew it came to know us quite well, £rd -we could take it out of the nest and feed it from our hands, much to the distiess of tbe foster parents. As»soon as it m&s able to fly from twig to twig they took it 'out of sight."

Mr C. Mahoney. of WaiUkaro, Tuparoa, a district on the east cowst, about 80 'miles north of Gisborne, has taken a very i active interest in the affairs of the shining cuckoo. This year he has had a large number of observers watching for the bird. He is therefore able to record arrivals on dates extending from August 27 to October 5. The first call heard in the district last year was on October 20, tut earlieT dabss this year are probably accounted for by the closer observation to which the bird has been subjected. The following are the dates of arrival this year recorded up to the present time, end the names of observers :—: —

Locality. Date. Observer. Moehftu. Auckland Oct. 7 C. Curtis JP*ru* Bay, Auckland OcL 4 J. Mitchell „. Parnell. A"uckl»nd Sspt. 8 G. C. Bealo Opononi. Auckland Oct. 2 A. G, Fell Tuparoa Aug. 27 C. Mahony &

Oct. 5 others New Plymouth Sept. 30 W. W. Smith New Plymouth Oct. 2 " X P. Turner Kailoke, W«llington " Oct. 1 V. Phillips ■Pokoaora, Nelson Sept. 28 B. E. Ofcarles1 ' ■ ton

Charleston, Nelson Oct. 5 G. M. Powell Baturnu. Nelson, West Coast Oct. 2 XX. Bucba1 nan . A.watere, Valley, , Mailborough Sept. 27 " G.B.W " Waiut», Westland Oct. 17 W. H. Swan-ne-y