WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND

Otago Witness, Issue 3383, 15 January 1919, Page 55

WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND

By the Hon. G. M. Thomson, F.L.S. NO. 28.—HERONS, BITTERNS, AND DUCKS. Before considering the great family of the Anatidse, which includes Ducks, Geese, and Swans, I may just briefly refer to a few birds which belong to the same family as the Shags, and which were or are occasionally to be met with in the country, though they are by no means common. When I first came to New Zealand, now over 50 years ago, and began to note the birds which were to be seen every day in Southland I occasionally recorded the sight of the White Heron, especially on the unfrequented rivers at the foot of the Hokonui Hills, and on the estuary of the Oreti. Some years later, when in Stewart Island, I saw a pair of them, probably nesting birds, up the south-west arm of Paterson Inlet. This was in the month of January. I don't think I have seen the species since. Hutton, in 1904, stated that it was extinct, or nearly so, in New Zealand, But the White Heron was a rare bird even before European times in this country, for the Maoris had a proverb comparing the rareness of anything to the scarcity of the Kotuku, as it was called. "The last heronry in New Zealand was near Okarito, on the Waitangituna River, which was visited by Mr Potts and his sons in December, 1871. He counted twenty nests in trees in close association with the nests of the White-throated Shag. The nests were firmly made with sticks, and contained three or four pale green eggs. The female commences laying in the third week in November, and incubates for four weeks. The young birds remain in the nest for a considerable time. In the breeding season both sexes develop beautiful white dorsal plumes, well known to milliners by the name of 'egerts.- " The Maoris placed a high value on the plumes of the White Heron. Among the people who lived in the fastnesses of Tuhoe Land, and also probably in other places, the plumes were "tapu." This species (Herodias timoriensis) is, as its technical name implies, not confined to New Zealand, as Timor is an island in the south-east of the Malay Archipelago. The bird is also found in Australia, and ranges as far north as China and Japan. But wherever it is met with, it is liable to be exterminated to meet the insane greed of women who like to decorate themselves with the bright feathers of birds. It is now protected in New Zealand, but the protection comes too late, as apparently the species must be counted among those which have disappeared from our fauna.

Along the sea-coast the Blue Heron (Demiegretta sacra) is occasionally met with. In recent years one used to frequent the bay immediately behind the Portobello Fish Hatchery, where he stood on the beach and picked up the food left there at low water. It is said to b© much more common in the North than in the South Island. It is a smaller bird than the White Heron, and is not nearly so distinguished looking; in colour it is a dark slate grey. It stands quite still by the waterside, watching for th© fishes or small crustaceans on which it feeds, and it sticks them with its long sharp bill as they pass within range; its flight is slow and heavy, as with all the herons, and it flies with the head thrown back in a characteristic manner. It has a range somewhat similar to that of the other species. A much commoner bird, but one very easily overlooked when at rest, is the Bittern (Botaurus poeciloptilus). Some thirty years ago a friend and I stood one frostly morning by a lagoon in the Taieri Plain, looking across at what we thought might be a bittern, or was it a stump of a short dead cabbage-tree? We could not decide, so we threw the only missiles within range—namely, pieces of frozen mud and soil, making them skid along the sheet of ice on the surface of the water. Still it did not move, and we had just decided that it was a piece of dead vegetation when one of the bits of mud hit it. Slowly the wings dropped, the head, which had been held with the bill pointing straight up, came down to horizontal, and the bird sailed slowly away, to our astonishment. The brown and buff colour of the plumage and the rigid pose of the bird when standing among dead grass, rushes, and bullrushes, make for the most perfect concealment,. and it was only because I happened to see a slight movement as I came along that I was-led in the first instance to think we were looking at a living creature. The bird stands about two feet high, and is a handsome species. It ranges all over Australia, and into New Caledonia and is very like the European species (B. stellaris), which has a very wide distribution in the northern hemisphere. Its habits are more or less nocturnal, and during the breeding season at night or early in the morning it utters a booming or bellowing noise like a young bull. The method of production of this note is not at present quite clear, and it is not heard as commonly now as it used to be when there were larger areas of undrained swamp in the country. lam told that these birds are still common in the north of Auckland district in the less settled swampy parts. Potts says "it has an extended breeding season. The nest is built of raupo or other aquatic plants; it is flat at the top, and, when built in water, stands about six inches above the surface. The eggs are four in number, and are small for the size of the bird." They are about two inches long, and of a brownish olive colour.

Another heron, the White-fronted Heron (Notophoyx novae-hollandife), and another bittern, the Little Bittern (Ardetta pusilla) occur in New Zealand, but they are practically unknown in this part of the country.

When we come to deal with the great family to which the Ducks, Geese, .and Swans belong, we are confronted with a large number of species, both native and introduced.

The bill in all the birds of this family is almost entirely covered with a soft sensitive membrane, ending in a horny process or nail at the top of the upper jaw or mandible. Most characteristic of all is the presence of highly-developed lamellae, thin plates, or transverse toothlike processes on both jaws. These no doubt act as a sifting apparatus, as one can easily observe when a cluck is searching for food, in a mud puddle; but they also probably assist in nipping off herbage, and gripping' things like fish, shrimps, slugs, and other aquatic animals on which the birds feed. The front toes of all these birds are always fully webbed. The birds of this family are for the most part of similar and frequent seas, lakes, rivers, and watery spots generally, being found to a great extent in winter on the shore, especially where mud-flats are exposed by the ebbing tide, and beds of such food-plants as Zostera (sea-wrack or sea-grass) are uncovered. Large flocks, which include many migrants, are formed at that season, and in spring the ganders and drakes commonly collect into parties, while the female is incubating. Later in summer the majority of the family shed their quills simultaneously, and conceal themselves until again capable of flight, the males then becoming dull in colour for several weeks, and resembling the other sex. All swim exceptionally well, while the partially submerged position with erect tail when feeding is well known to everyone. In New Zealand and its outlying islands 10-species, belonging to as many different genera, are found. In addition to these, at least 25 species, belonging to 20 genera, have been introduced and liberated by various acclimatisation - societies or by private individuals. Probably there are others which have been brought to. the country, but which have not been set free.

Before describing some of these native and introduced birds; I would again (as I keep constantly doing) point to the unscientific way in which we British people do things. We will not take the trouble to learn from the beginning, but we stumble into affairs, and waste money (and more valuable things besides) wholesale, because wo are too conceited or too pig-headed to be taught. The Boer war showed this; this last great war f has brought the lesson home to the Empire, and yet we do not learn it. We talk about scientific education, but the mass of the people, even those who call themselves educated, do not know., what it means, and are not prepared to pay the price required for it. We have been very, unscientific in a great deal of our acclimatisation work. When this country was first settled, wild ducks of several kinds abounded. Every. lake, swamp, and river contained them in numbers, at the suitable seasons. In my early rambles in Southland and Otago I repeatedly came across undisturbed waters, where the birds —grev and brown ducks and black teal—were literally- in hundreds and thousands. More out in the open, and on the edges of the large swamps, were myriads of paradise ducks, one of the most beautiful birds in the country. In the mountain streams the remarkable blue duck was common. But with absolute want of foresight these birds were shot and driven away till they are now comparatively rare. . Certainly, belated protection was given them to some extent, but not enough to save them. And in later years, for the past 40 at any rate, .the country has spent and continues to spend money and time in trying to establish other kinds of birds of the same family, in most cases fruitlessly. Here is still another example of the same lack of knowledge against which I am carping. Our various acclimatisation societies have brought in many kinds of birds, and set them free in the hope that they would establish. themselves, without first ascertaining whether they were residents or migrants in the country from which they are brought. It is no wonder that no success has attended many of these efforts at acclimatisation. I could name several migratory birds which have been brought to this country, and have failed to establish themselves. Yet only quite recently several of our societies were bandinc; themselves together to attempt the introduction of some purely migratory species from Australia. They might just as well throw their monev into the sea. I sometimes think it is high time that the power to introduce any new species of animal should be reserved to the Government, which should, however, only act on the advice of scientific experts. We should try to conserve the good things we have got, before we try any further introductions.