THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 3029, 3 April 1912, Page 76

THE NATURALIST.

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE. NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND. (By James DBrjMMOND, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) When I spent a few days at Ruatahuna, in the Urewera Country, last year, Paitini, a very old Maori, dictated a number of ancient references to birds to a young girl. They were written down in Maori, and were kindly translated byMr Elsdon Best, of Wellington. Some of them were short addresses, in the nature of proverbs, axioms, and words of welcome to strangers, and the following are four addresses taught to tuis kept in cages : —" Let the visitor be asked who he is. Are you Tu ? Are you Kongo, or Whakamau-tarawa? Let peace prevail. Welcome, welcome, 0, distinguished guest! There is no food in the hamlet! Afar off is the food! Come, welcome! Ehe, ehe! Kai tuba!" The final words are an imimation of the peculiar spitting jioiso made by the tui. " Let us be up, the day dawns ! Call out ' Welcome, welcome !' to the distinguished guest. There is no food in the hamlet. Afar off is the food ! Come, welcome ! Ehe, ehe! Kai tuha !" " 0, Apa-nui grasp your pauu 0, Tutaki, grasp your paddle, the great paddle, the long paddle, the paddle from Matatua ! Go forth and swim over the sea of Pahiki. Come, welcome. Ehe, ehe ! Kai tuha!" " Arise thou and set forth the foods ! Mark well the stores, both great and small, lest want assail in summer days. Then let your messengers go forth to those who looked askance. Come, welcome, 0 distinguished guest! Ehe, ehe! Kai tuha!" in regard to the moa, Paitini stated that he had been told that when men went out to take one, and found it standing near a steep place, they would carefully observe it. If it was standing on one leg, with the other leg drawn up, they would not approach, but when they saw it standing on both legs they would attack it and kill it. If a man went near when the bird had one leg drawn up, he would be kicked and killed. A reference to the moa, and to the Maoris' belief that it had a habit of standing facing the wind, with its mouth open, devouring the air, is made in the following saying : —- Partake, () children, of the food That causes the eyes to upward roll. But let me remain here, Even ats an air-eating moa at Wbaikapunake. Evidence is steadily accumulating against that marauder chief, the Jongtailed cuckoo. .Mrs E. Seifert, of Tauhei, has added her testimony as follows : —"On December 29 I saw a long-tailed tuckoo take a fledgling out of a chaffinch's nest. The nest was in an apple tree in the orchard, which is bounded on two sides by native buc-h. When I noticed the cuckoo first it appeared to be pecking vigorously at something, but owing to the luxuriance of the apple tree foliage. 1 could not see what it was. My approaeh evidently disturbed the cuckoo. It flew within a few feet of me, with the young bird in its bill, straight for the bush. One little chaffinch was left Ln the nest, and it cheaped incessantly. 1 have never seen a shining cuckoo here, nor have J. found its eggs, though grey warblers are plentiful, and their nests are easily found in the tall manuka. Near Matata, in the Bay of Plenty, a number of shining cuckoos have come every year, for eight or nine years, to an orchard. They spend a great deal of time on the quince trees when those trees are in bloom, and they fly occasionally on to the honeysuckle cfimbing on the verandah. At dusk they are very lively, darting about after moths. I am sure that the nature notes column is doing an immense amount of <*ood in the way of getting people interested in our native birds." " A few days ago, on paeaing a bed of sweet peas," writes Mr F. M. Ludwig, of Waihi, " 1 stepped to pick a flower, and noticed resting on a stem a dragon fly, which did not move when I picked

the bloom. On closer inspection I found that the insect was held firmly by the tendrils, one of which had made complete turns round first one and then the other of the two right wings. The dragon fly was dead, and apparently had not struggled, as I did not notice any damage to the wintrs. Was it alive or dead when encircled by the clinging tendrils? The dragon fly was of medium size, neither the very small nor yet the giant kind." Mr Ivan G. L. Blyth, writing from Mount Eden, Auckland, on January 9, ways : —" On SunaVy last, about sundown, I was on the top of Mount Eden and saw a swift. I should like to ask if this bird is often seen in New Zealand, as this is the first occasion on which I have observed the species. Is this bird likely to be the common swift (Hirundo apus) found during summer in England, or a stray specimen of an Australian species'/ I had a good opportunity for observing the bird closely as it passed and repassed within 10ft of me for at least a uuarter of an hour. Its characteristic dashing around in circles, sickle wings, short tail, white throat, and sooty plumage would have proclaimed its identity anywhere, and there could be no mistake about it. On one or two occasions during a nine years' residence in Australia I saw isolated specimens, but have never seen the bird in New Zealand. Possibly some of your correspondents have done so."

The English swift has never been recorded in New Zealand, and the bird seen by Mr Blyth, probably, was an Australian swift, or, as it is sometimes called, the white-ramped swift (Cypselus pacificus). Tt is not a regular visitor to New Zealand, but it come 3 occasionally, when, apparently, it is driven out of its course by bad weather. Its first recorded visit to New Zealand was in December, 1884. About 6 o'clock one evening Major W. B. Messenger, when camped at White Cliffs, near .New Plymouth, saw four strange birds flying.about the camp in pursuit of insects. Their flight reminded him of the English swift, and he shot one, which was easily identified. It is believed that these swifte migrate to Australia from the Northern Hemisphere, usually in company with another species, the spine-tailed swift. They neat in Siberia, China, and Japan, and spend the southern summer in Australia.

It is many months since Mr A. Hansen, keeper of the Cape Palliser lighthouse, sent some notes ot the keen observations he has made in the remotest and wildest parts of New Zealand, but a letter from him came to hand a few days ago, throwing just a flash of light on" those strange times that may be described as the whaling period in this country's" history. "In days long gone by," he* says, "Portland Island was a whaling station on a small scale. Evidence of this is found in the try-pots, oil-tanks, and whalebone on the beach at the northern end of the island. The whaling was known as shore whaling —that is, the whale was pursued and killed close to the land in boats launched from the beach. The whales killed were mostly the female sperm whales, which came into the Mahia Bay to calve. When killed they were towed to the island and were tried out on the beach The boats wore manned almost exclusively by Maoris, who lived on the island and the adjacent mainland. The late Mr Komeno, who was one of the leading whale-men on the island, told me many stirring stories of the times when whaling was in its hey-day. On one occasion he was foolish enough to make fast to a fin-back. The boat was towed by the monster 20 miles to sea at the rate of 12 knots an hour, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that he and his mates succeeded in regaining the island, after losing their harpoons and lines. He also told me of an exciting canoe trip he made when he was a very young man. Three canoes left Napier, Portland Island, with a fine westerly wind, which, of cour.se, was a fair wind, right astern almost. They got on well until nearly .abreast of the Wairoa River, when a southerly gale sprang up with the characteristic suddenness noticeable on the East Coast of New Zealand. One of the canoes left the others and steered for the Wairoa, where, it arrived safely. The other two held on for the island, but before getting there they were capsized several times. I asked him if he was not frightened at being overturned in a bad seaway so far from land. ' Oh,' he said, ' that was nothing. We just turned the canoe over; a few splashes with the paddle soon emptied it of the water; all got in, and we were off again,' and so on at each capsize. " Old Komene was a grand stamp of a Maori. He was 6ft 3in on his hard, bare feet, and straight as an arrow although 60 years of age, when I knew him Peace be to his manes. We were great and good friends. ' Sit tibi terra levis' ; but that is another story. Even now whales come to the island in fair numbers, gamboling and playing about. I have seen these huge beasts rear their great carcases three-quarters out of the water, falling ba-ck on their sides with a tremendous splash and crash, which could be heard distinctly at the lighthouse although they were two or three miles away. Now these monsters come and go unmolested; the old try-pots are rusting away; and the bones of the giants who hunted and slew them are mouldering into dust nearby."