WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND

Otago Witness, Issue 3384, 22 January 1919, Page 60

WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND

By the Hon. G. M. Thomson, F.L.S.

No. 29.—DUCKS. In writing about the native ducks of New Zealand I cannot commence better than by quoting the following passage from Hutton and Drummond's "Animals of New Zealand": —"In April, 1903, the Akaroa Mail published an interesting article, dealing with some members of this order on Banks Peninsula. Our native water fowl, unlike those of Britain, are not migratory, but live with us all the year round. The grey and Paradise ducks, spoonbill ducks, and black and brown teal all used to go inland to breed. The young were reared in the creeks, running in every part of the peninsula, and in the autumn, when they grew, strong enough on the wing, their parents led them to Lakes Ellesmere and Forsyth and other lagoons and marshes bordering on the sea, for it is in these salt marshes that these birds get the food they love, and grow to that plump perfection which renders them so delicious. When the bush covered the peninsula the creeks were well sheltered and little disturbed. In those days vast numbers of the birds were reared,, and the clouds of ducks that used to frequent the country were enormous." My earliest acquaintance with our native wild ducks goes back 50 years, when the rivers and streams of Southland, like those of Banks Peninsula, literally swarmed with these birds. Alas for the departed glories of these early days! The bush, with its exquisite unbroken undergrowth of ferns, mosses, orchids, and other plants, has gone, and with it all its wonderful bird fife. These things are still to be met with in New Zealand; but one has to get right away from the haunts of men to find them.

As mentioned in my last article, nine native ducks occur in the New Zealand region, and these beyong to nine different genera. .But two of these, which are, howevery. birds of very great interest to the naturalist, are found only in the Auckland Islands. These are the flightless duck (Nesonetta aucklandica) and the southern Merganser (Merganser australis). The former is a " little blackish-brown bird, with shortened wings, which has nearly or altogether lost the power of flight, and which lives on the sea coast, running over the masses of brown seaweed or kelp, and climbing over the slippery rocks by the help of its strong and sharp claws. When pursued it never attempts to fly, nor does it dive, but scurries away over the rocks." Its case is one of retrograde development, somewhat similar to that of the flightless insects which are common on oceanic islands. Natural selection has produced its present condition. Those birds which could fly would tend to get blown away from land in the severe gale 3 which sometimes sweep over these outlying islands. Those birds which took refuge in these conditions, or which were not good fliers, would tend to keep on the islands, and these would be the progenitors of succeeding generations. By constant elimination of the strongest fliers, and the survival of those which could not fly so well, there has arisen a race of birds which now cannot fly at all. In nearly all oceanic islands there are beetles, moths, and, strangest of all, flies which are unable to fly for the reason above specified. The merganser is a sea-duck, which frequents only the sheltered harbours of the Auckland Islands. It is nearly extinct. Its chief interest to the student of geographical distribution is the fact that it is confined to these islands, but belongs to a family of birds peculiar to the north, and its nearest relation is found in the Brazils.

The paradise duck (Casarca variegata) is the most beautiful species of the Anatidae in this country. The two sexes are very different in appearance. The drake has the head, neck, and breast black. The back is black, pencilled with white, "the abdomen is reddish-brown, pencilled with black, while the wing covex'ts are white. The female, on the other hand, has the head and neck white, with the breast of the same reddish-brown colour as the abdomen. This makes it an extremely conspicuous bird, and its colouring is all the more singular, because it is the female which sits upon the eggs, and which one would therefore expect to be more demurely coloured. But, on the other hand, the young resemble the male birds, and only assume the adult plumage when fully grown. These birds used to be extraordinarily abundant, and in the early days of cultivation quickly learned the value of cultivated crops. They used to come out on the fields near their shelter grounds in winter and autumn, and help themselves to the grain in the stooks, and all that was left after the crops were harvested. They were difficult birds to get near when in the open and on their feeding grounds. They always kept sentinels posted to give warning of the approach of danger, and their peculiar hooting cry soon sent all the flock out of range. The nests were common in the wide river-beds of the Canterbury Plains and in the extensive swamps of the Otago and Southland plains. _ They are still to be found in such localities, and I have seen good broods of the young birds,, which were hatched out of clutches of eggs which

had been found and had been transferred under a sitting hen. In the natural condition the old birds are extremely watchful and careful about their young, pretending lameness or inability to fly in their endeavours to lure intruders away from the nest or the hiding-place of the young birds. "Upon the danger signal being uttered by the parent bird, the young ones usually make at once for the nearest flowing water, down which they float close to the bank, seeking cover, and availing themselves with great sagacity of every opportunity of shelter or concealment, in which they are assisted bv their similarity in general colour to the soil and vegetation." The grey duck (Anas superciliosa) is the commonest wild duck in this country,, and is not unlike the wild duck or mallard of Britain (A. boscas). It is preserved, as are all the other game birds of New Zealand, except for a winter shooting season, when a very considerable destruction of them goes on. We hear a great deal about sport in connection with shooting, but when boiled down it is only the murdering instinct which leads most men to see how many birds they can kill. There is nothing manly or heroic about it, though sportsmen pretend there is. Fortunately, in addition to a close season for birds, there are now sanctuaries for ducks and other waterfowl .in many parts of the country, and it is singular how soon the birds learn that in these places they are safe from guns. This is a handsome bird of a greyish-brown colour, varied with yellowish-white. On the wing is a green speculum, margined above and below with black. According to Potts, the nest -is to be found '' close by the edge of a bush creek, amongst damp,.'ferny shades; out on the plain, sheltered by a tussock, quite far away from water; and often on a hillside, sometimes even on trees. But wherever the cup-shaped nest is found, whether on the level plain or in a swamp, it is profusely lined with down, and diffuses a strong, musky odour." The species Is not confined to New Zealand, but ranges from Java through the Australian and Polynesian regions. The grey teal (Nettion castaneum) is a s.peciea with nearly the same range as the preceding. It is a smaller bird, which occurs not unfrequently in the North Island, but is almost unknown in Otago. The brown duck (Elasmonetta chlorotis) is the onlv representative of a genus which is confined to New Zealand. It is a distinctly brown bird, greyish above and reddish or yellowish below. It used to be quite common in this part of the islands in early days, but is now rarely seen. It does not fly well, and so is much more liable to be destroyed by the pothunter than the grey duck is. The shoveller (Spatula rhynehotis) is abird I do not know. Hutton says it ia common in both islandsj and frequents the muddy shores of lakes and. streams. It feeds on small aquatic insects, which its large, bill is well adapted to catch. It is essentially a surface-feeder, and never dives for food. Mr Potts says that it is very evenly distributed over the country, although large numbers are to be met with only in certain localities in the North Island, where it is of common occurrence. For some years after settling in Canterbury he regarded it as quite rare, but later on it was seen much oftener than formerly. It is distinguished by having the bill longer than the head, and much dilated from half its length from the tip; hence its technical name Spatula and its popular name of shoveller. The white-winged duck {Nyroca australis) is another species, which is not known to me. '' It breeds round the margins of the lakes of the Lower Waikato. Formerly it was very abundant on Lake Piotomahana, but almost the whole flock seems to have been destroyed by the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886. It sits all day on the. water in the middle of the lake, and is very difficult to approach. It is an excellent diver, and gets much of its food below the surface of the water." It is reddish-brown, with very conspicuous white wing feathers, which are readily seen when the bird is flying. "The black teal (Fuligula novse-zealandise) is a beautiful little bird, which I was very familiar with in the early days. Hutton says of it: "This species in colour is very like the scaup duck of Europe, but, unlike that species, it does not frequent the seashore, but lives among rushy streams in small flocks." The head and neck are black, glossed with purple above and green on the sides. The upper sur : face and breast are also black, and the speculum on the wings is white. The duck is a duller colour altogether than the drake. "In the hill country of the South Island about 1870 it was fairly common. It is a gregarious bird, and it delights to assemble in large flocks. It may be seen on some of the more secluded lakes swimming about and disporting with numbers of other water-fowl, very frequently diving. Sometimes it breeds in the shelter of a huge Maori-head." Mr Potts has found its nest well concealed by a large snow-grass tussock, within a few feet of water, where there was a rent or crack in the ground. The nest is of grass, thickly lined with down, with five eggs. According to Mr Travers, those that occupy Lake Guyon are generally to be found sitting on half-submerged logs close to the bank, from which ihey appear to watch the small fish, upon which they chiefly feed. Like other birds on the lake, they are by no means shy, quietly dropping into the water and swimming away if approached too closely." I 'must leave an account of the blue duck to another paper, It is too singular and interesting a bird to be dismissed with a sentence. »