IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2927, 20 April 1910, Page 13

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

(By James Drummond, ’F.L.S., F.Z.S.)

Notes on natural history in NEW ZEALAND.

Mr Gregor M‘Gregor, of Wanganui,, lenew the huia in the early days of settlement, when this bird was fairly plentiful in parts of the Rimutaika, Tararua, and Kuahin© Ranges, and was •found, in fact, over the whole of the country drained by the Manawatu, Rangitikei, and Hautapu Rivers. He has seen dozens of huias on occasions when he •mad© his way through the forests. He states that they come readily when their whistle is imitated by a human being. They have a very acute sens© of bearing, and will com© from a distance of over 100 yards. They do not usually fly down, but run or hop along the ground, usually coming down the open slope of a hill. He has never seen huias singly. They have always been in pairs. They ar© snared, but always on the ground, and never on a tree.. They are more in evidence on foggy or wet days. In the summer time they go high up the ranges; in the winter the snow on the mountaintops drives them down to lower altitudes. There is usually a great deal of rimu, maitai, and birch timber in their forest haunts. Many large rimu trees fall to the ground and decay, and offer homes to huhu grubs, for which the huias have a, marked 1 weakness. At one time, Mr M'Gregor adds, huias were very plentiful near Taihape. He feels strongly that determined efforts should be made to catch some for liberation on the bird sanctuaries. The female lays up to three, four, or five eggs in a season, four being quite common, and be is convinced that the birds would thrive well on the sanctuaries, where they would be protected from all natural enemies, including man, the most relentless of all.

The white-eyes apparently made their appearance on the Chahani Islands about the same time as they came, from Australia to New Zealand. Mr A. iShand, who has lived on the island for 55 years, states that he saw these birds for the first time about a year after his airrival. They were strangers to the Chatham Island Maoris, who were greatly interested in .the new arrivals. The Hauhau prisoners from Poverty Bay, who were placed in custody on the. islands in 1868, caught large numbers -of. white-eyes for food. The favourite method was by the use of eel-baskets. These baskets are made with a very narrow opening, arranged halfway down the length of- the basket, the reeds sloping up from one end to the entrance. The birds, like the eels, entered the baskets to get the bait, but could not find the end of the entrance again, and were captured.

If the weka becomes extinct it will leave behind it a name for impudence which will live for ever. Perhaps it is an exaggerated form of egotism that leads this bird to believe that its presence is acceptable at all times and in all places. It knows nothing of the law against trespass, and it boldly ignores all unwritten regulations in regard to illtimed visits. The Cambridge Sanatorium, which has been erected close to an extensive piece of native forest, is often visited by this little larrikin, especially at night, when opportunities ai*e supplied for stealthy movements and cunning raids. Patients. are sometimes sin-prised by a nightly visit, and outside in the yard near the kitchen there are often evidences in the early morning that Avekas have been prowling about looking for things which attract their quaint fancies. One night a few years ago an exceptionally boldl member of the genus entered the building and walked calmly upstairs into the matron's room. Its movements attracted attention, and when the light was suddenly turned on it turned round with a dignified air and departed, its feet pattering on the stairs as it: went down and left the building by the Way it had entered.

" I have been, greatly interested in Mr o'Regan's letters about the native birds of Westland," writes Mr Murray Campbell, of Antigua street, Christchurch, " and as I lived' for two. years in the farthest south of Westland, Cascade River, Cascade Point, probably the most inaccessible part of New Zealand, I should be able to write about the birds. The weka, the kakapo, and the kiwi are quite plentiful there, as are also the native pigeon and the kaka; but even in that remote part I have seen stoats, although they are very rare at present. Regarding the grayling, they, oome up from the Cascade in great shoals for the greater part of the year. Each shoal seemed to jbe almost uniform in regard to the sizes of fish; one day they woluldl be all about lOin long, at another time only 3in to 4in."

Describing the numbers of kakas which formerly frequented the forests in the Grey district, on the West Coast, Mr A. H. Clark, of Waihi, states that 45 or 50 years ago, when he reached the summit of a ridge of a clear place, he (had only to start calling to attract some of the birds, and after he had shot one they would flock round him in surprising numbers. After perhaps half an hour's slaughter they would all suddenly flyaway and disappear. Occasionally they would remain near him for only a few minutes. In any case, if there were any kakas at all in the locality he was always sure of a good bag. There was a large, miro tree which stood out by itself in a clearing close to his, mining camp. On several occasions when his supply of ammunition was exhaupsted, he climbedl to the topmost branches, arid, by means of a slender pole with a running noose ait the end was able to snare many birds rjfter the method in use by the Maoris.

At the Buller River at Christmas time, ■when the kakas were very fat and tender, he roasted them on a spit in front of a bush fire. He says that at that time of the year they were more tasty than the wood pigeon, and made the best dish he ever tasted. Although he has shot many kakas in the Auckland ptovince he has never found them as fat as the West Coast kakas in the old days. Mr Clark without much trouble taught a young one to talk. He kept it in a cage covered with a dark cloth. He did not allow any of his mates to speak to.it; and in the evening and at times during the day he sat in front of the cage for an hour at a time and repeated the same word or sentence again and again until the bird had mastered it. Another lessen was then begun. At the conclusion of each lesson the pupil was rewarded with sugar, which all kakas relish.

While. Mr Clark and his mates were camped on the bank of a ' creek in the forest a native robin, with only one leg, suddenly made its appearance. For four months it was a constant attendant at the camp, and never went far away from the tent. It would not allow any other robin to come near the camp. It often followed the miners down to the claim where they carried on their sluicing never knew what happened to our companion," Mr Clark adds, " but one day, to onr deep regret, he mysteriously disappeared from the scene. He was a very faithful little fellow, and in those days it meant a great deal to us to have a living creature moving about the tent when we returned home in the evening, and to see him hopping around and hear him chirping in the early hours of the morning."