THE NATURALIST. IN TOUCH WITH NATURE. NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3111, 29 October 1913, Page 68

THE NATURALIST. IN TOUCH WITH NATURE. NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND.

By James Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.

It is possible to spend a whole evening examining pieces of moss or damp earth through a microscope, and to feel that minutes, not hours, have flown past. An extraordinary collection of ■ animals cross the field of vision. Most of them are charged with tireless energy. They hustle and struggle, lead the most strenuous of all strenuous lives, and evidently are determined to create some turmoil in the little world into which they have been called. Perhaps the most plentiful of the strange microscopical animals found in these conditions are nematodes. They are popularly known as thread-worms, which is quite an appropriate name, as they have a close resemblance to pieces of thread when seen with a low-power lens. But a high-power lens reveals the full beauty and complexity of their structure, with nervous system, alimentary canal and organs complete. I have never seen a microscopical nematode that had not some important business in hand. Their elongated bodies never cease bending and wriggling with rapidly undulating movement. They dart about with a rapidity which, when their size is considered, is astonishing, and their tussles with pieces of moss or earth that obstruct their path afford endless amusement and valuable lessons on the rewards of perseverance and industry. The microscopic nematodes on mess and earth are free livers. That is, they live free and independent lives, and are indebted to no other animal, high or low in the scheme of creation, for home or help of any kind. In the same order, however, there are scores of species, representing countless individuals, which are purely parasitic in their habits. It is probable that amongst the parasitic creatures of the world there are more nematodes than members of any other class. It is not usual to find free-liymg species also parasitic, but the two sections are connected by transitional forms, which are free livers at one stage of their existence and parasites at another stage. Some of the nematoid parasites, evidently, can live a free existence if they wish to do so. These parasites attack all classes of large animals, from men and other mammals down to the humblest. In New Zealand they have been recorded mainly In the conger eel, but also in the dolphin, the black shag, the crested grebe, the white heron, and the albatrosses. Doubtless they are present in other birds, but their

presence has not been detected. Sometimes they are found in organs of the body; sometimes they are encysted in tissues. The range of their size is a remarkable one. There are the , minute species I have just described, and in other countries there are species that attain a length of over 3ft. One of their most remarkable features is their vitality. Like rotifers end other inhabitants of the world the unaided eye cannot see, they retain their vitality long after a ■ time when, according to the rules of life and death, they ought to be quite dead. Major F. Blair, Y.D., has sent from Adelaide a clipping from the South Australian Register dealing with a pair of swallows that made their home fn a shed where the Rev. D. F. Brandt keeps his motor-boat at Murray Bridge, on the bank of the River Murray. Some time ago Mr Brandt set out on a long journey to Ren mark, 400 miles up the river. The pair of swallows started with him, and accompanied him until Renmark was reached. “Where they camped at night,” he says. “I don’t know. We sometimes slept in houses, or in the boat, or on- the river bank. On the Sunday, at Renmark, wo found them sitting in the boat, and on the Monday they started for home with us, and kept us company again through the 400 miles return journey. Several times during the trip we noticed them in fierce combat with other swallows. It certainly was the most remarkable incident I have ever noticed in connection with these birds.” Mr A. E. Brookes, of Allendale road, Mount Albert, Auckland, reports that one of his employees, while gathering branches cut from a macrocarpa hedge on August 20, found a very beautiful specimen of tho grey warbler’s nest. It was built this year, and the material and colours blended .so well with the surroundings that it would have escaped discovery if the man had not accidentally seen it. The material used was fresh green moss, bound together with blades of green grass. A few cobwebs had been woven in here and there, also a few strands of dirty cotton, which once were white. The whole colour scheme extended over the hood. Inside the nest was lined with small feathers, gathered from an adjoining fowl-yard. The nest had not been damaged. It was quite complete and ready to receive eggs on August 19. “This is the earliest date on which I have known these charming warblers to build,” Mr Brookes says. “Blackbirds and thrushes usually are first in the field, but up to the date mentioned I had not noticed them making any preparations for nesting. They are, however, very busy now—September 6. Perhaps other observers have noted cases of early building by grey warblers.” Mr H. B. Devereaux, of Waihi, commenting on the early spring in tho North -Island this year, states that a flowering shrub, Pomaderris elliptica, was just coming out in bloom at the end of August. Archdeacon Walsh, of Waimate, in a paper in the “Transactions’’ of the New Zealand Institute, points out that this shrub usually does not flower before October. It is found on dry hills in the North Island, and is known to the Maoris as Kumarahou. T’-e Tainui (Poma derris apetala) is another species of the same genus, and around it the Maoris wove a tradition that a specimen in the Mokau district had sprung from green timber used in the Tainui, one of the canoes tliat brought the Maoris to New Zealand at th© time of the great migration, some 500 or 600 years ago. The species has not been recorded in the South Island, and is rare in the North Island, but it is also found in Australia. About the end of August, also, Mr Devereaux saw in flower a native orchid (pterostylis), the kie-kie (Freycinetia banksii), Leucopodogon fasiculatus and the snow-berry (Gaultheria antipoda). In the Pahiatua district some years ago Mr J. M. Monckton, of Ahimanu, Gisborne, was walking along the bank of a small creek, and saw a dark object lying on a ledge in the water. A closer inspection showed that it was a large eel. He brought it ashore with a gaff, and found that it weighed slightly more than 13 pounds. While examining it he felt a hard substance in its stomach. On opening the stomach he was surprised to find inside a trout weighing about half a pound* The trout was quite fresh, and bore no marks whatever. On another occasion he counted no fewer than 10 eels of different sizes, which were devouring the body of a dead trout. He supplies this information as additional evidence in support of the statement that eels kill trout. Mr D. Hope, curator of the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society’s gardens, who has had Jong experience of fish and other animals in New Zealand, states that ho has known many instances of eels attacking trout, but twice, in the Avon, in Christchurch, he has seen a trout trying to devour an eel. In some instances, therefore, the tables are turned on the eels. Wood pigeons, kakas, wekas, and kiwis are reported by Mr Colin Jesson to be plentiful at Te Tuhi, 30 miles north-east of Wanganui, and another correspondent states that the bell-bird is plentiful in the Waihou Hills, Hokianga.