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Otago Witness, Issue 3098, 30 July 1913, Page 74

There ire re plenty of kakas, pigeons, and Tv'ckas about, bo we didn’t starve. Kakas toasted {with sandflies for sauce —and aren’t they hot?) always seemed to be like Shanghai elastic; but stowed kakas, with plenty of salt in the water, are quite a treat with bread and hunger sauce. The questions I would like answering are (1) is St a crime to shoot kakas if your food lias yon short? (2) Can Maoris taka them for

food? (5) la there any shooting season, for kakao? These questions were debated every night as we were seated round tho crackling live of driftwood piled up hy the river 1 . But wo never reached anything definite. Kakas ay® very sociable birds. When one is shot and wounded, its cries will bring around all the birds within earshot. The trees would seem to bo alive with kukas, screeching and whistling. Then another

shot would bring a couple down, and the survivors would wing away to ali the points of the compass, only to return when the cries of the wounded were seem most affectionate creatures. V\e saw hundreds in the few days wo wore in the heavy bush below Lake Hauroto. Another point I would like to mention is the round, full whistle of the kaka when rallying round the wounded. The niako-mako (or inockio) has a song which we rendered as “'fake your coloured socks off " ; sometimes it is one note longer: “Take your coloured stockings off.” These two phrases give the right number of syllables, so that wo could easily remember the whistle. Now, the tui, to my car, whistles the same little song, only the note is fuller anr, more mellow. M hen the kaka rallies round its wounded mates it alternates hoarse squawks with the very musical song that it has evidently learnt from the tui and the mockio. lias any reader of this column noticed the similarity? I suppose that most people who have knocked about the coasts of Otago have, at some time or another, run across a few stray penguins. Can “ Ornithologist ” or “ Makinihi ” enlighten me as to the species? It obviously is not the Emperor, for he stands three to four feet high. The birds we find on the benches of Otago are only about 20 inches high and must be cither tlie Glent.oo penguin (Pvgoscelis papaa) or the black-throated Adobe (Py goscols adoliafl Our clog rounded one up on the shores of Tewaewac Bay, and it was most comical to ecc the expression of “ Fancy meeting you ! ’ in the attitude of dog and bird. Poor o.d “Storm” expected the stranger to run; but, no. it turned and faced him. The dog for a moment was very much embarrassed, but eventually decided on a flank or a roar attack. But as the magnetic needle always points to tlie pole, so the penguin turned its face to the dog, who was frightened to come to close quarters. However, Mr Penguin could only look one way a time. lie may have taken us for big Emperor comrades, but a sudden grab at the back of his neck' must have disillusionised him a great deal. After we' had examined his quaint little flippers and his half-feather-and-half-hair clothing wo let him gq, thinking that ho would straight away dive into the water. But where he was brought up ho had learned that dangerous things lived in the water. In tlie Antarctic when the penguin wishes to avoid trouble lie c’amhers on to the solid ice, for there no enemies can harm him. No men or polar boars can bother him as in the Far North. In the Arctic seals are almost unapproachable because of the Rar of bear and Esquimaux. But in these southern regions seals and penguins are generally easily approached. Bo when our penguin was placed on the sand, instead of seeking safety in the breakers, ho turnon round again and faced the dog! Eventually we carried him out into the water, and, with a good throw, heaved him well out. lie hit the water with a splash, and went off like an arrow for about 30 yards; he then dived again, and. swimming under water, ho made a lot of zig-zag rushes until he disappeared round the point. Kingfishers, kakas, and penguins—that will have to do for to-day!—Yours, etc.. Pan ax. Bear “ Magistor,” —One day as I was climbing up a hawthorn tree I found three very small cocoons. They were on a branch at the top of the tree, and were very close to each other. They were fastened on to the branch with fine threads which the caterpillar had spun, and they had little bits of leaves stuck over thorn, so that they looked just bice tiny leaves until we examined them. They arc not half an inch long, so that I think the insect comes out will be a very small one. —Yours sincerely, F. Smeal. Dear “ Magistor,”—Wo thank you very much for your kindness in sending us the book on insects, and wo enjoyed looking at the beautiful coloured pictures, especially red admirals and dragon ffics. We were much interested in the pictures of the stick insect. Lrslie and I wore just thinking that wo would like to see the little stick insects casting off their skins. —Yours sincerely. Beet Lawrence, Leslie Thompson. Roxburgh, July 8, 1913. Dear “ Magistor,” —For some time 1 have been intending to send you a trapdoor spider and some traps, and on various occasions have had some boxed up for that purpose. Shortly before Easter Mr I). Ross brought rue some peripatus, and I said I would take them to Ur Bonham or yourself on a trio that was impending about that tune. However, as usual, I forgot in the rush of getting oft’ To-day, in rummaging through some tins, I found the peripatus tin, and, to my surprise, they were still alive. So 1 am posting them under separate cover in a chocolate box. There are two—the larger easily to 1)0 found. If you fail at first to find the smaller, shake all the contents out and spread out. Although I did that to-day I did not find the second one until I was putting them into a box for you. In the nib box you will find the lids of a couple or more ~J don’t remember now, it being some time since I boxed them, and I have posted the boxes—of trapdoor tubes and a small portion of the tube to show tlie method of attachment. A small piece of wadding i.s stuffed into each tube. One of your Irish correspondents [no joke intended, 1 had a request from Ireland] made rather an amusing request some time ago. These tubes run several foot into the ground, and if sufficient soil were dug to show the whole tunnel, the weight would run into Several hundredweight. I sent you a large spider per favour of Mr Ross; and, if you want another, I daresay I could get you some, but cannot guarantee the time. Roxburgh. St. Clair, June 27. Dear “ Magistor,”—l read with interest your notes in the Times of Juno 26, and notice you say the earth is nearer the sun in winter than in summer, which guggosfs tlie question; Why is summer usually warmer than winter? I have been long under the impression that it was taught that it was because wc arc nearer the sun in summer, or that its rays shone more directly at that season. However, my own idea is that if we are really about 92 millions of miles distant from the sun the difference in distance from summer to winter docs not account for difference in temperature, but think that it is more likely that it is the result of the sun {as you "point out) shining on our atmosphere for nearly double the length of time in summer than it does in the winter. I have, on a lino sunny day in Juno, placed a thermometer in the sun, and it has run up almost as high as it would on a warm day in summer. Of course, there are other

tilings at work which affect the changes of atmospheric heat or cold and keep the air in circulation. Have you noticed how often, especially in the spring, the sun rises and shines out beautifully for from half an hour to an hour, then clouds gather and obscure it, and often result in a wet day? I have wondered if the sun’s heat draws the moist air in its direction as it rises, with the result that; when it accumulates in too great a weight it falls in rain (i. 0., the moisture, not the sun). Another question which may be of interest to your young readers is: Why is it a fact that if you point a line or straight edge from the top of Flagstaff to the horizon it is dead level? Some of your readers, if they doubt this, might take the straight edge and a spirit level m the holidays and try it. —I am. etc., Schoolboy of the Sixties. Cairnficld, Kakanui, July 11. 1913. Dear “ Magister,”—ln to-day’s issue of the Times I notice a letter to “Magister” on the weasel. Cals do attack the weasel, and when desiring warm, fresh flesh will rdt a part* of the body even as they will do with the flesh of the rat. An old bachelor, my near neighbour, has a cat lie name Jim. Well, about a week ago ho found Jim with a weasel partly eaten. Cats are considered a nuisance in the garden, but when not overfed as to become lazy they are of intense value in ki'C T 'in rr away vermin and in thinning out birds which would devour all the fruit. While digging the heavy see! known as “ tarry ” ground I could not help noticing the absence f the small earthworm, Lumbricas campestrus. The large worm is present, as arc abundance of grub and caterpillars. One of those I send for identification. Avrohom. 110 Lect street, Invercargill, July 12. 1915. Dear “ Magister,”—lt is not a fact, as queried by you, that “ the Hinemoa is Lord Brassey’s pleasure yacht Sunbeam transformed into a lighthouse tender. The Hinemoa was built on the Clyde in 1876 for the New Zealand Government to replace the old paddle steamer Luna, and was christened Hinemoa when she was launched. She originally had three polo masts, one of which has since been removed. The Glasgow Herald, in reporting the launching, said she was ‘the prettiest model that over graced the Clyde.’ The Sunbeam —that is the steamer Sunbeam —was a smaller boat, I/Old Br assay’s original Sunbeam was a barquontine, and was wrecked somewhere near Thursday Island about 18 years ago, and the steamer vacht Sunbeam was built to replace her. The Hinemoa, in her young days, was a flyer and held a good many Now Zealand coastal records. —Yours, etc., Seadog. Papatowai, July 12, 1913. Dear “Magister,” —In reply to ‘ Ornithologist,” who thinks the scarlet kaka is a direct throw-back to a tropical red parrot or humming bird, birds or plants in a natural state of nature do not throw back or revert to a type. Ho has got muddled with domestic instances, in which man, by selection, can produce wonderful varieties. These varieties frequently throw back, but ancestral do not. I notice in the same letter in the Witness, July 2, “Ornithologist ” identified a pied-fantail’s nest by an addled egg in it, and this enabled him to say that he thought it is not that of the black species. Can “ Ornithologist ” or any other correspondent, say that ho lias seen a black fantail’s nest? The black and the pied are reared in the same nest. — Yours, etc., J. Himu. Dear “ Magister,”—l think that I am in a position to answer H. Watt’s query in regard to stoats capturing fresh-water crayfish. The first time rny attention was drawn to it was some years ago while shifting a pile of netting and stakes, when we found a great quantity of the remains of crayfish and a stoat’s nest. Since then I have Como across several similar plants in old straw stacks near the creek which runs through the place, where crayfish are very plentiful. Within the last few weeks wo got another deposit under the thatch of a sheaf stack we were stripping to cut. It was only a few yards from the creek. And we knew that a stoat was living in the stacks somewhere. About six weeks ago he took a fancy for a change of diet, and started ou the poultry, taking one every night till ho killed over 20 hens and the rooster. I had traps set for sometime without success, till 1 found a small hole at the back where he had been getting in. And I had him the following morning. Since then there have boon no more dead found. Three years ago I was riding through one of the paddocks, and stopped to speak to the man working the team, when I saw a rabbit tacking through the tussocks in a peculiar way, similar to a dog close on a hare. Then wo saw a large stoat in front running for all ho was worth. After hunting the stoat out of sight the rabbit came back and eat at the mouth of tho burrow. I presume it was a doe with young ones in the hole. After witnessing the hunt, my man remarked: “That is surely a reversal of the order of nature. - ’ Some few days after that I was riding along the road to the township. A stoat crossed tho road in front of me and ran into a rabbit hole. Almost at the same time my dog started a rabbit. It also bolted into the same hole. The stoat came out quicker then he went in, and crawled up and along the branches of tho gor-e. Tho hedge being newly cut 1 could see him distinctly, looking as timid as a hunted mouse. We have some very pretty hybrid ducks, a cross between the Indian-runncr and the grey wild duck. Last year they hatched out about 60 young ones, and as each brood came on to the pond there were one or two gone every morning. At tho end of the season there was only one left. I have come to the conclusion that tho stoat is a great coward, is fast exterminating our native birds, and is very little use for the purpose he was introduced —namely, to exterminate tho rabbits, as he only kills to satisfy his hunger. —Yours, etc., • J.D.