THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 3112, 5 November 1913, Page 68

THE NATURALIST.

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE. NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND. (By Jamks Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) An egg-l>asket of the green mantis, which somebody left on my office table some time ago, is a good sample of the wonderful little house this insect builds for its eggs. The mantis has been described several times in this column, and it is not necessary to add to what has been said already, -except that many people apply its name to the walking-stick insect, which belongs to another family, and bears no resemblance whatever to the real mantis. The egg-basket is a small, inconspicuous, brownish-black construction, with a polished surface, usually found on the stem or twig of a plant, and sometimes on the paling of a fence. It is about half an inch long /nd a quarter of an inch high. Both ends slope off from the top towards the bottom. Along the whole length of the top there is a senes of open ings, each made in the form of the figure eight, giving the construction a lace-work appearance. Unlike birds, the female mantis lays her eggs first, and makes a habi tation for them afterwards. She lays the eggs in clumps, in the situations described, amT then begins to surround them with a tough secretion, which is produced from a thread-like apparatus attached to the oviduct. The secretion at first is soft. It is moulded into the symmetrical shape in which the egg-basket is found, and the air hardens it until it becomes almost as hard as the wood on which it was placed. The young escape from the lacework holes on top. The outward wall of the construction is so hard that it cannot be broken with a finger-nail, but is easily demolished with a penknife. Inside it is a marvel of comfort and beauty. It is composed of about 40 cells, placed in perfect order, one row on each side. Each cell is partitioned off by a gauzy, diaphanous curtain, whoso yellow, bronze, or cerulean

blue •colours are revealed by a powerful lens. In these cells, which, when examined minutely, have somewhat the same appearance as a brilliant electrical spectacular effect at an opera, the larvae of the mantis are hatched, and from these palatial chambers they come forth into the world of light.

The kiwi’s method of feeding is not yet exhausted. There is still another note on the subject. It is from Mr A. E. Brookes, of Wharchine, North of Auckland, who writes : —“Several years ago one of our neighbours caught a kiwi, and my father, who was fond of birdsj bought it for 2s 6d. We made a coop for it, but as we were not acquainted with its habits, we were puzzled as to the kind of food it would take. I dug up some worms and placed thent in a tin, and was delighted to find that the captive accepted them readily. We concluded that worms were the best of diet to our kiwi’s thinking, but as digging a tin full of them night and morning became very wearisome,'one day I tied the bird up on a piece of wet ground by a long cord., attaohed to one of its legs. I was surprised at the result of the experiment. No sooner had the kiwi been tethered there than it began to sniff with its bill about an inch from the ground. Then it suddenly thrust its bill full-length into the moist earth, and pulled out a worm, which struggled at the end of the bill. The bird gave a queer jerk with its head and swallowed the worm whole. It repeated the operation.- several times. I noticed that it always made the same sniffing sound before it thrust its bill into the ground. Never during the hundreds of times 1 watched it feed did it fail to catch a worm after the bill had gone below the surface. In the circumstances, you will not be surprised when I say that I am convinced that the kiwi’s sense of smell is highly developed.

“ Mr Travers has seen worms or pieces of worms lying close to where kiwis had been feeding. I have not had that experience, as my kiwi, while I was watching it at least, always swallowed the worms whole. I shut it in its coop every night, and when I had done that I gave a short, sharp whistle. When it heard the sound it held its head on one side, in the attitude of listening. Then it suddenly stretched its neck to its full extent and uttered a piercing note, which it repeated about 20 times in fairly quick succession. The notes were very similar to those of the weka. We kept the kiwi for more than two years, tying it up in swamps and other damp places by day, and placing it back in its coop at night. We thought that by that time it would have become quite tame, and one day we omitted to place the cord on its leg. It stayed in the swamp for the greater part of the day, but before night came it had disappeared. We never saw it again.”

Albinism and melanism are very marked characteristics of both native and introduced birds in New Zealand, and Mr H. Vaughan, writing from Palmerston North, describes several specimens that have come under his notice. He states that at Longburn last summer he found an illustration of melanism in the form of a black sparrow, and on his way to town one morning he found a blackbird that was a partial albino. The whole of its head and one wing were white. He 'has seen a fairly large number of albino sparrows, which are not uncommon in New Zealand. “ I often wonder what causes this abnormal colouring in our birds,” ha says. At present, no satisfactory explanation has been put forth.

A letter sent by Miss Blanche Turton from Rouen, France, in which reference was made to the massacre of the crew of the French whaler, Jean Bart, at the Chatham Islands, has recalled several incidents of the early days of Mr Robert Mair, of Whangarei. He states that he remembers the vessel’s departure from the Bay of Islands for the Chathams on her fatal voyage, and the sensation caused by the report of the massacre. He also remembers the visit of Wilkes’s American Antarctic Expedition in the Vincennes, a full-rigged ship, the Porpoise, a brig, and the Flying-Fish, a fore-and-aft schooner, about 74 years ago. Later on, Sir James Ross’s Antarctic Expedition came to the Bay of Islands in the Erebus and Terror. Sir' Joseph D. Hooker, who afterwards became one of the most famous botanists of the world, and who died in England two years ago, was naturalist in the expedition. He joined nominally as assistant surgeon, a position Ross offered him if ho could qualify in time, but his real position was botanist. It was this expedition which gave him his opportunity to write “ The New Zealand Flora,” published in 1854. Sir Joseph, who was then Mr Joseph Hooker, was the guest of the principal of the school at which Mr Mair was a pupil and he helped the boys to make a Guy Fawkes. One of them, in a spirit of curiosity, asked Sir James Roes if ho had seen the continent that had recently been reported by Wilkes’s vessels. With very fine humour the explorer promptly replied, “We sailed over it.” A few years ago Mr Mair saw these words printed in italics in a magazine article. Another distinguished visitor of those days was Lady Franklin, who was thrown from her horse when returning to the Bay of Islands from Hokianga, and had to be carried in a hauhoa, or litter, made for her by the Maoris. She was introduced to both teachers and pupils at the school and had to be wheeled into the schoolroom. Still another distinguished visitor was Lieutenant W. Hobson, a son of Captain Hobson, .New Zealand’s first Governor. Lieutenant Hobson afterwards joined Captain M'Clintock on his last voyage in the Fox in search of Sir John Franklin, and was in charge of the party that discovered the boat used by the crews of Franklin’s ships.