THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 3017, 10 January 1912, Page 76

THE NATURALIST.

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE. NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND. (Bt James Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) A correspondent in Auckland has made inquiries in regard to the origin of the word “ godwit,” the name of the famous shore bird which is believed to migrate between New Zealand and Eastern Siberia every year, and which is commonly, but wrongly, called “curlew" in the North Island and “ Bnipe ’’ in Otago and Southland. The origin of the word is not known. The late Professor A. Newton, of Cambridge, suggested that, in the absence of any plausible derivation of the word, or explanation of its meaning, it might have had some connection with the Greek and Latin words for goathead. This, many years ago, was the name of a bird, and Pierre B-elon, who published a scholarly book on ornithology in Paris in 1555, believed that it was a species of Limosa, to which the godwit belongs. Professor Newton thinks that the Latin “ iEgooephalus ’’ may have been introduced into England as “ goathead,’’ and there it may have been corrupted into “ godwit.” At the same time, he remarks that the original /Egocephalus possibly was the snipe, another member of the Limicolse. It has a goat-like bleating song, which has obtained for it in many countries the name of “ bleater ” or the equivalent. In the New Zealand area it is represented only on the Auckland Islands, the Snares, and the Chathams, although it is almost cosmopolitan in its distribution. The curlew, for which the godwit is mistaken in the north, is found on the sea coasts of Australia, and is an occasional visitor to New Zealand, but does not breed here. It is about twice as large as the godwit, and bus a strong, long bill, arched downwards, while the godwit’s is slightly bent upward at the tip. The snipe is smaller than the godwit, and has shorter leg*, and its Jong bill is bent slightly downward.

i ls there a jack bird in New Zealand 7 The question was asked by naturalists 20, 30, and 40 years ago. There are some who still answer it in the affirmative, but most investigators believe that the jack bird of the early days is merely the juvenile form of the rare and interesting saddleback The latter bird, as its name implies, has a well-defined mark on its back resembling a saddle on the back of a horse. Th.-? general colour of the plumage is glossy black, and the saddle is formed by the bright ferruginous colour of the wing-coverts and the feathers on the back and shoulders. The young, as they are now believed to be, vary in colour from grey to brown, and they do not possess the mark of' the saddle. The jack bird, as a species, was first brought into being by Sir Walter Buller in 1865, when he wrote an essay on ornithology in connection with an exhibition held in New Zealand in that year. The scientific name of the saddleback is Creadion carunculatus, and Sir Walter named his jack bird Creadion oinereus. In trying to establish his new species he described it as being of the same size and general form as the saddleback, to which he admitted it bears a close affinity, but he pointed out that the colouring of the species is quite different. “ The common species, the saddleback,” he said, “is of a deep uniform black, relieved by a band of rufous brown, which occupies the whole of the back, and forming a sharp outline across the shoulders, sweeps over the wing coverts in a broad curve; in the jack bird, however, the plumage is of a dark cinereous brown, pale on the under-parts, and tinted with amber on the wings and scapularies, the upper and lower tail coverts, and a few spots on the smaller wing coverts, being bright rufous; the wattles are of the same colour and shape as in the saddleback, but are somewhat smaller.”

The new species was vigorously attacked by Dr Otto Finsch, Captain Hutton, and other systematists, but Mr A. Heischek, the Austrian naturalist, who spent a few years in New Zealand, supported Sutler’s contention. He went as far as to state that in 1877, when he was on the West Coast of the South Island, he shot about 20 of both kinds and both sexes, and that he found on dissection that birds supposed to be the young of the saddleback were fully adult birds, both male and female. “ In December, 1380,” he says, “I stayed on the Hen, an Island in the Hauraki Gulf, for three

weeks, and shot about 30 specimens of Creadion carunculatus, all of them being in the common saddleback plumage. I could only determine the sex in each case by dissection, and what appeared to be the young birds differed only from the adult in having the wattles smaller and lighter in colour. I roamed over the whole island during my stay there, and never saw a bird in the plumage of the Creadion cinereus.” On another occasion Mr Eeischek found the adult birds feeding a young one, and he obtained the three birds, which he preserved and marked male, female, and young. In spite of this testimony, it seems to be generally felt that the jack bird is really the young of the saddleback in a stage of its development. Sir Walter Buller gave it the name jack bird because settlers applied that name to it in the South Island. He did not know how the name arose, but suggests that it is an adaptation of the Maori word “ tieke,” which is the ancient name of the saddleback, and which, he says, is the equivalent, in the Maori vernacular, of “Jack.”

It is many years since an authentic report has been received of the presence of either the saddleback or its young —or jack bird, if the latter is still believed in,—and there seems to be no doubt that this member of the Dominion’s avifauna is very rare. The Hon. W. Rothschild would have been more justified in including it .in his costly “ Extinct Birds ” than several other New Zealand species that are figured there—notably the white-head of the North Island. At one time the saddleback was fairly plentiful in nearly all parts of the South Island and as far north in the North Island as the Lower Waikato. Beyond that district, according to Sir Walter Buller, it was seldom seen, although it is reported now to have been once represented in the Urewera Country in satisfactory numbers. Writing 23 years ago, Sir Walter said ; “It is numerous in the wooded ranges between Waikato Heads and Raglan, and is occasionally found in the neighbourhood of the Hunua coalfields; but I have never heard of its appearance in the Tauranga district, on the east coast, although I have an excellent ornitholigical correspondent there.” At that time it was comparatively abundant in the wooded hills in the vicinity of Wellington and in those skirting the Tararua and Ruahine Ranges.

The saddleback had a special interest to the Maoris in the days when birds took a hand in men’s affairs, os it was believed to be the guardian of ancient treasures. In the hollow of a tree at Cape Runaway, greenstone clubs and other heirlooms of great antiquity belonging to the Whanauapanui tribe are hidden, and the members of the tribe still beJfeve that a saddleback stands guard over the relics. When Sir Walter wrote the second edition of his work, it was stated by the Maoris that a pair of saddlebacks were breeding in the hollow of a famous hinau tree at Omaruteangi, in the Urewera Country, known as Putatieke, which is supposed to possess miraculous attributes. It is also stated that the people of the Arawa tribe regarded the sa<Jdleback with so niaich reverence that they would not allow it to be wilfully destroyed. The notes of the bird are described as flute-like, clear, and musical. To quote Sir Walter Buller again, the most remarkable exhibition of its vocal powers is during the breeding season, when the male performs to his mate in a soft strain of exquisite sweetness. This love-song is heard only on a near approach, “ and,” he adds, “it is at first difficult to believe that so clamorous a bird can be capable of such tender strains.” Inquiries made from the Customs authorities show that no record is kept of the number of mutton-birds taken on the islets near Stewart Island during the few weeks of the mutton-birding season, but the officer in charge of the Customs Department at the Bluff informs me that, as far as can be ascertained, the average is about 260,000. About 250 Maoris, including women and children, are employed in the industry, and, as the muttonbirds sell for about 4d each, the operations of the industry represent about £4OOO, or £l6 for each individual.