OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN

Otago Witness, Issue 3112, 5 November 1913, Page 71

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN

FOR SENIORS AND JUNIORS. (Conducted by Magisteb, to whom all communications must be addressed.) [Uagister will be glad to receive Nature notes, marked papers containing educational articles, diagrams, details of experiments, etc., o! scnolastn interest to teachers and pupils. must use only one side of the paper, and whether using a pen name or not, must send both name and address.l

NEW ZEALANDERS TOURING. I have had the privilege of reading a series of letters written by a New Zealand quartet—two belonging to Dunedin —who are now in Europe. When they left Auckland they went to Vancouver, via .Hem o " lulu, and across Canadk by the CanadianPacific railway, making side trips to Niagara, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, etc. From these letters I should like to quote, because of their descriptive, historical, and geographical contents, and what better reading for the upper standards than real live letters? Boston. Chicago they disliked very much. “It can bo done in' one day—the morning at the stockyards and the afternoon in an automobile sight-seeing,—and then get out quick. But not so New York.” Of course, it isn’t meant to be taken so literally. But it is Boston I am making a note of. From the gilded dome of the parliamentary buildings overlooking Boston common a fine view of Boston and its environments is obtained. “ Boston is a city of crooked streets,” and has one street 45 miles long, connecting it with other towns. The story goes about that a calf went straying and the old cow followed; then the farmer followed her, and this went on until a track was made, and when people built they built alongside the track, and thus the street got its peculiar shape. First lie! You have heard the saying that Boston is the hub of the universe. Local people say it arose from the fact that the streets from the Square go off in such a way as to resemble the spokes of a wheel. Second lie!” Boston is a very historic city. Wo saw the monument erected in 1888 to commemorate the Boston massacre. The King’s Chapel was first built in 1639, and enlarged in 1710, and the present- chapel completed in 1753. The Public Library is a very fine building, started in 1888 and completed in 1895, at a cost of £475,000. Then there is tbe~Bunker Hill Monument, .erected on the spot v wherc the battle was fought. It lias a winding staircase inside of 295 steps, and a great view is obtained from, the top. The old South Church was built in 1750, and is now used for housing historic relics. In the Old Stone House the Declaration of Independence was read in July, 1776. It is the only buildings in America that has the signs of British dependence, for it has the lion and the unidorn .on each side of the front of the building. Why they have not been removed I don’t know. CORRESPONDENCE AND NOTES. Dr Fulton -sends us a note upon the cuckoo’s habits, and encloses—and I publish it—a letter from Mr H. Stuart Dove, of West' Dcvonport, Tasmania, a gentleman who is a member of the Royal Australian Ornithologists’ Union. When our notes on the cuckoo appeared a momh or so ago Dr Fulton evidently sent them to Mr Dove, and the letter is an answer. A list ot questions is referred to. That refers to a proposal that, in our and other columns there should be published broadcast a set of questions asking for definite information along certain lines. The infofmation sent in as a result would be standardised, so to speak. I hope something satisfactory will eventuate. I think Dr Fulton has read more into our correspondence than has been meant. Because two or three have stated that their observations show it is quite possible that some cuckoos in New Zealand may build nests or feed their young, it docs not necessarily -mean that these ‘recorders think this building and feeding to bo a custom. They may have struck the rarc exceptions. “ Mount Egmont ” must have made a mistake, or some great transformation must have taken place in transit, for the tirr contained two wetas —one certainly much larger than the other. Perhaps the mistake came about in this way. The male weta is a curious, fearsome-looking animal, with an immense head half as long or more than its abdomen, though its Size is lessened in appearance by being to some extent turned under. Soak one in hot water, and straighten the head out to sec its full size. The hind legs, which were covered with sharp spurs pointing back, wore fully 4in long,- as is always the case, I think. ' Perhaps “Mount Egmont” thought this fero-cious-looking male a scorpion, because of tho two claspcr-like appendages at the end of tho abdomen. Was that so? The smaller one, true to her sox, was not so savage-looking as—was ho, though?—her lord and master i The females can always be picked out by their ovipositors. Perhaps in the specimens sent the difference in size and the different formation of tho / terminals for sex purposes deceived my correspondent. There are some fine specimens in the Dunedin Museum, and the finest live specimens I have seen from Middlomarch, in Central Otago, where thtiy were found, I think* under stones. Hudson’s “ Manual of New Zealand Entomology ” says that in the north this insect favours the muhoo (Melicytus ramifloris), “ whose stems may often be seen pierced with largo holes, made originally probably by tho grub of tho Prionus reticularis, or other large insect. Out of- these the insects emerge at night, to feed on the leaves.” The males show fight if in any way disturbed, but the females generally try to hide. “ Both sexes when irritated emit a peculiar grating sound, which may bo often heard at night in tho forest, and is produced by the file-

Hion of the femur against a small lil«> situated on each side of the second abdominal segment.” Mr Hudson says " they arc evidently strictly arboreal in their habits, as they exhibit great skill in walking along branches,” but this does not apply to aii

species. Perhaps I should have referred to the powerful mandibles and long, sensitive antennae, but these are pretty evident. But where is the weta’s ear? That is not so evident. In the grasshopper I think it is supposed to be in the abdomen; but more wonderful still, the weta is supposed to have its ear. on its shin-bone! One on each side, I euppose. Imagine having ears on your shin-bones, and being able to turn your shins towards any sound ! This is only a supposition, however, but as far as I know there is no trace of an ear anywhere else, and as it—the weta, I mean —can make a noise, it is assumed there must be an ear somewhere. Just one word more. Both sexes of the weta, especially that known as Deinacrida megacephala, can give severe bites, but the injury is probably only a mechanical one, though I have no desire to test the statement. Ross had a heavy September fall of nearly 14in, though it has had worse. The return came to hand just too late for last week. “ Avrohom ” is on the way to solving the question whether the grass grub is responsible for all it gets discredit for. He has hatched out larvce, and gets a brown moth. I shall try to get it identified. I couldn’t get about last week, on account of an influenza cold, but am quite fit again. Many will perhaps take “ Avrohom’s ” suggestion, and appreciably decrease the number of moths in their holding. What “ Avrohom ” has done can be done in any school, and I wonder that more of this kind 6f observational is not done than there is. It is in work like this that children can see such direct profitable results from knowledge, acquired by observation. X’s (Matakanui) box came to hand, and the woolly larva and the lichen, but specimen No. 2 must have been too microscopic to bo seen with the aid of an ordinary magnifying glass, or had disappeared. But where ? The box seemed tight enough Surely the larva did not get outside of it ! I have ueked several about the lichen, but have received no satisfactory answer. 1 think I’ll send it to Wellington. Can any ■ reader tell rne where I can get informal tion upon this lichen growing in large' ’’ splodges ” in Central Otago, and often enough where no other vegetation seems able to exist. The caterpillar is, I am pretty well euro, the larva of the moth Nyctemera annulata. The following about the larva and the moth is adapted from Hudson’s “ New Zealand Moths and Butterflies ” :—“ The larva feeds on Now Zealand groundsel (Scnecio bellidividos), but in cultivated districts it is more observed on Senecio scandens, a plant having a superficial rceomblauce to ivy. It also feeds on common groundsel (S. vulgaris), as well as on Cineraria maritima. * The caterpillars arc often seen on mild days in the middle or winter, and full-grown specimens are very common towards the end of August, so that there is little doubt that the species spends the winter in the larval condition. At other seasons there is a continuous succession of broods. When fully grown the caterpillar is about long. ‘lt is covered with numerous tufts of long black hair, and is black in colour, with the dorsal and lateral lines dark red. There arc several largo blue spots round the middle of each of the segments, and the membrane between each of the segments is b!uish-grey.' It makes little or no attempt to hide itself. ‘ Its hairy armour evidently renders it unpalatable to birds, and hence the secret habits' we observe in most larvre are absent in this species. When full-fed it selects a secluded spot, generally a crevice in the trunk of a tree, whljTc it spins an oval cocoon of silk intermixed with its own hairs. Here it changes into a shining black pupa, speckled and striped with yellow. The insect remains in this state about six weeks.’ The moth is one of the best-known of the New Zealand Lcpidoptera, and occurs in all three islands. ‘The expansion. of the wings is about Ijjm. ’ A!! the wings are a deep sooty black. The fovowings have an irregular cream-coloured band running from beyond the middle of the costa towards the “ tornus.” This band is interrupted in the middle, and crossed by several block veins, which sometimes almost break up into a chain of spots. The hind wings have a single large cream-coloured spot near the middle. The body is black, with several orange markings on the thorax, and a series of broad orange rings on the abdomen." The cream colour marking's van, - considerably.” With these descriptions 1 think both moth and caterpillar can bo easily identified. 1 fancy I have read somewhere that the cuckoo will cat the caterpillars. “ Robina ” (Glcniiain;, next week.

“Rustic” (Greenfield) will have received reply by poet, but I shall be glad of another set of specimens on a more liberal scale. As 4oz. go for a penny, there will bo no occasion to stint. For general information let me say that “ Rustic ” wanted some foliage identified. They are from deciduous trees now breaking into leafage. “ Rustic didn’t know what the trees were, asked others, and found them as ignorant as himself. I am sorry to say that I do not know one-tenth that I should know about our animal and plant; but that does not stop me from asking. Own up when ignorant, especially if by doing so you can got tho information you want. Tho true scientist and the well-informed generally look upon it {is a pleasure to assist others to level up. I have found this especially so in connection with th%se columns. 2 Pitt street, Dunedin, October 2. Dear " Magister,”—l have seen several notes on cuckoos in your columns, so send on another letter you may like to read and use if you think fit. Most of your correspondents still seem to imagine that cuckoos generally build their own nests and hatch out their young, but this, you know, is the rarest thing in the world. Most cuckoos have acquired the habit of parasitism, and, having done so, never go back. Now and again a cuckoo is found which builds a nest and hatches young, but this is only a rare sport, or “throw back,” or possibly a sccndant of birds which were never parabut remained true to the original habit of nest-building throughout tho ages, practically all their other relatives having degenerated into parasites. Mr Stuart Dove has evidently not yet road my papers on tho acquiring of this strange habit.—l am, etc.. Robert Fcltox. ♦ West Dovonport, Tasmania, October 2. Dear Dr Fulton, —Many thanks for your note of 6th ult., also for the clipping you kindly sent. I placed your suggestion before the R.A.O.U. Council, but have not heard what decision they ha ye come to. With regard to questions to bo asked, I think those that you suggested could not be beaten. It would be just as well to ask for any observations as to a partial nestbuildmg or incubation by the bird herself, as there are legends (in which I place no credence) to that effect with regard to the European species. There is a remark in the clipping you enclose, with which I certainly

disagree, to the effect that probably the foster parents would not tolerate an egg larger than the one it lays itself. There is generally a marked discrepancy in size between the eggs of our cuckoo here and those of their foster parents. For instance, that of our tit (Acanthiza diemenensis) would be, say, ,68in by -Bin, while the fantailed cuckoo (O. flabelliformis) is .81in by .6in. While in Gippsland, Victoria, I found the egg of the pallid cuckoo (C. pallidus) in the nest of the yellow-faced honey-eater (Ptilotis chrysops). The egg of the former measured lin by ,75in, while that of the latter was only .Bin by .57in, so that it is evident size makes no difference to the feelings of the foster parents. There is often a considerable discrepancy in colouring, too, as witness the pink-spotted egg of Chalcococcyx basnlis among the white ones of Acanthiza chrysorrhoa ; but colour, perhaps, does not count in a domed nest. In the instance given above of C. pallidus and P. chrysops,* there was not much colour discrepancy, the egg of chrysops being not nearly so deeply tinted as usual. It was salmon-tinted, with spots of chestnut-red about the apex, and a few scattered ones towards the smaller end. That of C. pallidus was pale salmon, with odd chestnut spots. The honey-eater’s nest is, of course, an open one. A curious thing happened in this case: the nest was finished on October 13, ami contained one egg of the honey-eater on the 14th, two eggs of the honey-eater -on the 15th, one egg of the honey-eater and one of C. pallidus on the 16th, so the latter had evidently removed an egg before laying her own. I_could find no remains of it under or near the nest, so conclude she must have carried it a considerable distance, or else swallowed it on the spot. I am inclined to the latter ‘opinion, as cuckoos have been shot with remains of an egg in the digestive tract, and cdthouav it has been concluded at the time that ;t was her own egg, she w r as carrying in the throat and swallowed at the shock, why is it not just as probable that she had recently removed an egg of another bird from the” nest? It was the rustic opinion before Shakespeare’s time that the European cuckoo swallowed little birds’ eggs to make her voice clear, and tnese country sayings very frequently have a substratum of fact. As to the male bird “ drawing the enemy’s fire ” while the female seizes the opportunity to deposit her egg (sec extract from London Magazine in clipping you sent), I have never noticed that in colonial cuckoos —have you?—although the smaller birds will mob,our larger cuckoos (the pallid and fantailed) as if they know their enemies. No doubt you saw that Stuart, Baker had come to the following conclusions from the study of many hundred of eggs of Asiatic parasitic cuckoos: —(1) That the eggs of parasitic cuckoos are undergoing a process of adaptation; (2) that the majority of foster parents are totally unconscious of incongruity in size between their own eggs and those of the cuckoo; (3) that they'are not conscious of variation in shape ; (4) that individuals do detect differences of colouration.” —Yours sincerely, H. Stuart Dove.

Dear “ Magistcr,”—The chrysalis have developed, and the parents of the destructive caterpillars prove to bo brown moths, specimens of which I send under separate covers. At dusk each evening they are seen in thousands, if not millions. They rise out of the ground and fly low near the surface among the grass, unless attracted by a light. It was early in July that I took the caterpillars. These reached tiro imago stage in October. I cannot say when the eggs were laid—probably last summer, from October to January; but the ill-effects of their work were noticed in late autumn, and through the winter to early spring. The ordinary farmer blames the destruction of the grass to the ordinary grass grub (the odontria or similar beetle), but I have taken particular notice both in the field and garden, where I found at least 50 caterpillars to one grub. One can easily see that if farmers and others would make small fires of straw and burn their gorsc clippings in the evening, thousands of these moths would be destroyed. It is amusing to see the cats and ducks chasing them for a delicate morsel; and the caterpillars are enjoyed by the fowls. While digging in the garden I was always accompanied by a couple of brown Leghorns, which seized upon each caterpillar as it appeared. Would you kindly find the name of the moth? I fancy all know it well as a fluttercr around the lamp, but it never appeared in such myriads before. —I am, etc., Avrohom. Kakanui. October 21. Matakanui, October 21. Dear “ Magistcr,”—l am forwarding you two beastice found in Thompson’s Gorge. Will you please classify them for me? The cne with the bristles wo will call No. 1. I also enclose a little of a kind of lichen which grows in Central Otago, especially -in the vicinity of Chatto Creek. Thanking you in anticipation,—l am, etc., X. Uia, Midhirst, November 16. Dear “ Magistcr,”—l am forwarding to you a scorpion and a weta, the latter name being the local name by which the insect is known, but I cannot certify to the correct way of spelling it. Both of these insects were found in the bush here on the slopes of Mount Egmont. Perhaps you may be able to give me some information about them. Their bite is said to be poisonous.— 1 am. etc . Mount Egmont. Ross, October 18. Dear “Magistcr,”—The following is our weather report for September: —Thermometer: 9 a.m. —Maximum 60deg, minimum 40dog, mean 52.4dcg; night—maximum 50deg, minimum 33rfc'g, mean 41.3 deg. Barometer; Maximum, 31.02 deg; minimum, 29.87dcg; mean, 30.51 deg. Rain: Total, 13.61 in; highest daily, 2.12 in; number of days, 25. Wind: 5 E., .6 N., 1 S.W. Weather; A miserable month. Only five bright days—all the rest dull, cold, and svet. —Yours faithfully, W. Winchester. Tuapeka West, October 21. Dear “ Magistcr,”—r«We have Nature’s flower garden looking its very best. Strolling through the bush, we find ourselves in a paradise. Here we find the manuka all with th'eir lovely white mantles on; but what is this clinging and’ hanging on so shyly to the manuka? .A lovely white clematis ! One would think its flowers were made of wax: they look so lovely. Farther on we find the supplejack. lie also has his white mantle on. clinging to some manuka for support. Here we find the wild fuchsia with its shv little flowers hiding behind its leaves. But wtiat is this? The queen of the paradise—the kowhai, with its lovely drooping cups of gold. Here wo find the tui singing in all his glory, making the whole bush ring. Moving on wo find

our native flax (phormium) bursting forth in all its brown glory of flowers; and hero is the stately old cabbage tree at Nature’s best, with its lovely scented flowers. Hero on a birch tree is a poor little robin singing a sweet, but sad, song. How frightened he is flitting and hopping about all the time! Along the banks of the creek and in shady nooks of rocks wo find mosses and ferns of all sorts, tell.'mg us that Nature is at her best. Wo also sec the track of the fallow deer, and the shy little opossum. But we must pass on, for they all belong to this garden of paradise. But how shy all our wild flowers are! How they hang their pretty heads! and when wc pull one and take it home, how it pines and withers and dies —alas! pining for its native homo in all its grandeur and' solitude! • But, “ Magister,” I must stop, for I could fill a book about our glorious native bush.— I am, etc., K. T.