THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 3031, 17 April 1912, Page 76

THE NATURALIST.

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE. NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND. (Bx James Dbummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) From Otaki, on the west coast of the Wellington province, Mr W. Beet has sent some notes showing the present position of native birds in that part of the Dominion, and adding to the knowledge already accumulated in regard to their habits. He states that the grey duck is still fairly plentiful in certain places, but the draining of the swamps by landowners along the coast during the past 25 years has destroyed so much of then* feeding grounds that their numbers have been reduced, even to a greater extent than by shooting. The same statement, he believes, may be applied to all the fresh-water birds, including the pukeko and the bittern. There are still a few pukekos in places where the swamps have not been completely draihecl, and the bittern also is still in existence, but not in great numbers. It is very quiet in that district. The only sound he has ever heard it make there is a hoarse croak when it is on the wing. About 30 years ago it was very plentiful in the Bay of Plenty district, and the loud booming note could be heard at all times; but though it was fairly plentiful at Otak> when he first went to the district, he has never heard the boom of a bittern sine:, hia arrival.

Black teal, he says, were once very plentiful in the coaet lagoons, but are becoming rare now, and the earn© may be said of the brown or bush teal. He once found a pair of albinos of the latter in a quiet bush stream. They had a brood of young ones. He thought that when the shooting season came round he would be able to obtain them for the museum, but an adjacent sawmill hand was wiser in his generation, and took them for the pot without waiting for the season. The little grebe, weweia, and the matatera or fern bird, are still found in the district, but their numbers have been greatly reduced in recent years. The landrail, apparently, has disappeared altogether. The two birds that seem to hold their own best are the ground lark and the harrier hawk, kahu. The latter at one time bred out in the impassable swamps, but as the swamps are now drained they probably go further afield. Mr Best has shot a few specimens of spoonbill ducks in the district, but they are not plentiful. He haa never seen tihem very plentiful in any part of the Dominion he has visited. There are a good number of blue or mountain ducks in the streams in the ranges, but as they do not come near civilisation they are not often seen. The sparrow hawk is very rare, and Mr Best has not seen one for some years.

Sea birds appear along the coast at times, and the black-backed gull and smaller gull breed in the sandhills near tlbe beach. Occasionally' a small flock of godwits also a few redbills. In 1873 Mr J?est saw a flock of redbills near Whakatane, in the Bay of Plenty. There were 13 birds in the flock, and one of them was white. He was travelling up and down the coast for some months, and there was always the same number, and they were in the same place. After an absence of three years he rode through the district again, and there were still the 13 redbills. with one white one. He wonders what became of the increase during those years. Black shags are plentiful on the West Coast. Atone time they had several breeding plaoes inland, on tlie banks of the lagoons and rivers, but owing to the bush having been felled, there is only one rookery left m far as he knows. He has never the-white-breasted shag there, and thinks that it does not travel so far south. To illustrate the power of the shag in killing fish, he states that he found one of those birds on the beach some years ago. It had caught a kahawai, and had tried to swallow it; but the fish was too big, and stuck in the shag's throat. The spines in the back fin prevented its ejection, and when he found them both were dead. He pulled the fish out anrt measured it. The length was 17in, and the depth 4in at the deepest part.

" Everybody knows that the pigeon is a speedy flier, but I have several times seen a pigeon captured by a sparrowhawk," writes Mr P. J. O'Regan, of Wellington. " The hawk seems gradually to get above the pigeon, and to force its victim to the ground. On one occasion, I saw a hunted pigeon settle in a river, whereupon the hawk at once pounced on it, and. breaking both wings with its claws, towed the victim ashore. A har-rier-hawk which I once saw attack a young, unfledged Paradise duck was less successful. He rose some distance in tho air with the bird in its claws, when both parent birds were attracted by the victim's cries. The drake sliuck the hawk viciously several times, and compelled him to drop his ruarry," evidently very little the worse for the outrage."

From his stores of bird-lore, Mr O'Regan has also sent the following:—"All who have lived in the bush know that the weka is an expert swimmer, but many persons deny that the bird is also a diver. I have no doubt on the latter point, however, having s a weka dive more than once, but only when chased by dogs. The weka often swims even a large and flooded river, and makes light wck of the task,

but he does not dive merely for the fun of the thing; at least, such is my experience. It is well known that the weka is also an expert climber, and that he will get out of some very dLTicult places. Yet, strange to say, both he and the kiwi fall readily into mining shafts, and if the excavation is even sft or 6ft deep, either bird is f powerless to escape. I have proved this act incontestablv by finding the dead birds in old prospecting shafts, and I know of an instance of a kiwi being captured alive in this way. It would seem that the kiwi, although a nocturnal bird, is largely accustomed merely to feel his way with his long bill, and I have often noticed that the weka is not nearly so alert at night as in the daytime. Be the explanation what it may, there is the undoubted fact that I have repeatedly found the remains of kiwis and wek.is in mining shafts. Has any of your contributors ever noted the extreme parochialism of both the kiwi and the kakapo ? Here is a curious fact. The small grey kiwi is found in the Inangahua Valley, but only on the eastern side of the river. On the west rn side of the river there is found the roa, a great kiwi, but not the smaller denizen of the eastern bank. 1 have caught many specimens of each bird, but never outside the respective ' spheres of influence,' cf vhich the boundary is the Inangahua River. Why this is so I am unable to say, but it is evidently conclusive proof that neither species of kiwi : s able to swim. As for the kakapo, he is fairly abundant on the western side, for I have crught several birds there in one afternoon, biu) I have never seen more than two of these birds altogether on the opposite side of the Inangahua. Yet the vegetation is the same on both banks. It would be interesting to find the explanation of these two peculiar but undoubted facts."