NATURALIST' FIELD CUB

Otago Witness, Issue 3315, 26 September 1917, Page 48

NATURALIST' FIELD CUB

The Field Club outing on Saturday afternoon was to Morrison's Creek, a tributary of the Leith, about three miles from the city. Seventeen members turned out, and, favoured by glorious. weather, spent an enjoyable afternoon. From its source in the heart of Swampy Hill the creek plunges down through a steep-sided ravine to its junction with the Leith. The beautiful piece of native bush which clothes the hills on either side is a good example of the recovery which the native vegetation makes when protected from the ravages of stock and the still more destructive human vandalism, and is a credit to the vipilance of the city's water caretakers. A few years ago a water-supply pipe was laid down the bed of the creek, and in the intervening years Nature has been busy covering up the ugliness of the bare clay banks and rocks left by man's works with a mantle "of greenery. Everywhere mosses of surpassing loveliness, liverworts, epilobiums, and other species jostle one another for every inch of space. Here and there may be seen a bed of the little creeping hertera, with its scarlet berries backed by the green foliage, while in the bush every log and rock is covered with ferns and other plants. Five species of Hymenophyllum, or filmy ferns, were noted during the afternoon, among them the somewhat rare H. antrovirens. Thie is the only locality in the Dunodin district from which this delicate little fern has so far been reported. The bush was enlivened by the tuneful notes of numerous bell-birds.. It is pleasing to see that these splendid songsters are holding their o.wn in spite of many disabilities. Other native birds _ seen were the yellowbreasted tit, which is peculiar to the South Island, the tiny bush wren or rifleman, the riro-riro or grey warbler, and pied and black fantails.