WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND

Otago Witness, Issue 3396, 16 April 1919, Page 61

WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND

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

No. 40.—PUKEKO AND TAKAHE

The Swamp Hens or Pukekos are among the largest of the Rallidae, and are beautiful and intensely coloured birds, the back, wings, and tail being of a deep ehinin<* black, the breast a deep mdigoblue colour, the under tail coverts pure white, and the frontal plate, bill, legs, and feet red. Altogether a conspicuous and handsome bird. The males only differ from the females in being -slightly larger.- They live in swamps or on the banks of lagoons, sallying forth in the early morning, and on the approach of evening in search of food, which consists of various vegetable substances, pipis, and insects. They run with great rapidity, making for cover when disturbed, and threading their way through reeds and rushes with amazing quickness. If hard pressed, they take to flight. Many years ago I was witness to a sight not often seen, but which made a great impression on me at the time. I was riding along a Southland road in the Waikiwi district, a road bordered by deep wet swamps on each side, when I came on a number of Pukekos dancing. A similar habit has been recorded of the Parra Jacana, a Brazilian species, which somewhat resembles our Swamp Hen, but I have never heard of the performance among our birds. About a dozen Pukekos were collected on a small clear grasscovered space among the flax bushes and rushes of the swamp; they were so intent on their business that they let me approach, and evidently did not notice me for quite a long time. About three or four in the middle of the 'group were going through antics very like a set dance, moving in and out, and bobbing their heads and bodies to each other, 'while the remainder stood round in a sort of circle watching the performance. I stopped my horse within a dozen feet of the dancers, and could easily have covered the whole bunch with my stockwhip, but I was as much interested as the performers themselves, and sat still watching their movements .with great interest. Some slight movement of me or my horse drew the attention of the birds to me, and the performance was instantlv stopped, and all slipped off with sudden panic into the surrounding vegetation. I did not realise till afterwards what a unique performance I had witnessed, or I should have made a careful note of it at the time. Nor have I heard .of any one else who has seen it; yet it must occur often enough. .If I remember aright it was in the spring-time, and probably, therefore, at the breeding season, and the dance may. have been associated with the courtship of their future mates- by the male birds. Guthrie-Smith,who has watched Pukekos more closely than any one else in New Zealand whose observations are recorded, does not seem to have seen them dancing. As far as I could detect there was no fighting among the birds, such as marks the courting of another Ralline bird—the Ruff—amotfg which the males have regular duels before a circle of admiring hens. These Pukekos were merely dancing, and went through their performance with as much solemnity as the average bucolic performers in a country dance.

Pukekos nest from the end of August till as late as March. Guthrie-Smith sa y S: _"Eoughly speaking, their typical nesting positions may be classified into three lots • firstly, there is the top of a nigger-head or huge rush bush, entirely open, to the sky; secondly, there is the type of nest placed at the base of flax clumps, nigger-head, or any suitable growth, and to°some degree sheltered by overhanging greenery; and thirdly, there is the nest deep in the tall raupo growing on the edge and on the shallow promontories of the lake, and where for years no fires have burnt the mass of sere,' brown, hollow-chambered blades. One nest in quite a unique position, built on a willow tree some two feet above the water was found by me in February, but in all my experience of hundreds of Pukeko nests, I have seen no other, not placed in deep raupo, or on the very top of a niggerhead, or, lastly, at the base of a flax clump or rush bush. The construction of the nest is simple, and the material used such as can be most easily collected, dried or green grasses, raupo, carex, etc., shaped and rounded to the requirements of the birds. The nest is easily found, for after a few days incubation of the eggs, the adjacent .vegetation is_ trampled into runs, especially if several birds share a nest. After incubation is over and while the young are still returning nightly to the nest, it is impossble for the most unobservant to pass the spot. The tussocks are flattened down for yards around, empty pipi shells are strewed round about, and often there is a large heap of droppings where the birds have been in the habit of doing sentinel duty." The number of eggs laid varies from four or five up to nine. They are a little over two inches long, but vary in form a good deal. They are of a greyish-brown colour, with dots and blotches of grey and brownish violet.

As soon as the young are hatched, they run about, and when disturbed, conceal themselves with much art. "Pukeko chicks are from their birth clothed along the spinal and other tracts with silvertipped blackish down, the crowns of their little heads are of a pinky baldness, their great mouths when open of a faint blood red hue, their beaks pink, too, and even when only a few hours old. they make great play about the nest, backwatering with their absurd semaphore wings, also pink and nearly nude. They are, in fact, as grotesque little creatures as it is possible to imagine. . . A baby Pukeko is indeed the oddest little creature, grovelling on his bcllv when approached, shivering his pinky half-bald head from side to side, his strange nude \vinglet3 outspread and backwatering, his eyes turned upwards like a Saint in a picture,

and his great red-lined mouth open like a fern owl's. His is the abject submission offered by heathen votaries to a remorseless god." Guthrie-Smith gives quite a long account of his observations on nesting pukekos, and especially on young birds brought up as domestic pets, and I must refer my readers for further particulars to his book on "Birds of the Water, Wood, and Waste."

These birds, when feeding, often lift the food to the mouth with their claws, as parrots do. The fie.?h is very palatable, and consequently numbers of them _ are shot, so that they have to be strictly protected for most of the year, and are only allowed to be shot during a limited period. When grain fields are bordered by swamps, as in many parts of the Taieri Plain, Pukekos take a certain toll of the crop near their places of shelter,' but they only do a limited amount of harm. In the North Island, in similar localities') they occasionally do considerable damage to the maize crops, eating all the cobs within their reach.

This species, Porphyrio melanotue, is not confined to New Zealand, but is widely distributed over Australia and Tasmania; its range extends as far as New Guinea, and it is also found on the intermediate islands, —Norfolk -and Lord Howe's.

There formerly lived in these islands, and also in Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands, gigantic swamp hens, very like the genus Porphyrio, but ■with stout legs, short wings, and soft tails. They were solitary and retiring in their habits, were unable to fly, but ran with great rapidity. The genus is probably extinct now, but has become so only in recent years. The discovery of these fine bird 3is very curious and interesting. The following account is partly condensed from Hutton's narrative in "Animals of New Zealand.' In 1847 Mr W. Mantell, of Wellington, found a number of fossil bones, mostly those of moas, in a bed of volcanic ash at Waingongdro, in the North Island, and sent them to Sir Richard Owen, the famous palaeontologist. In examining the collection Owen detected among them portions of the skull of a bird quite distinct from the moas, and he decided, after careful comparison with other bird skulls, that it belonged to a species of the Rallidse, allied to the swamp hens. It shows marvellously exact and careful observation that he was able to say with such certainty that the fragmentary fossil skull belonged to a bird like a very big Porphyrio. In describing it he constituted it the type of a new genus Notornis, and called the species N. mantelli, .after its discoverer. Two years later, in 1849, some sealers, who were' working at Duck Cove, Resolution Island, at the entrance of Dusky Sound, " saw the trail of a large and unknown bird on the snow, with which the ground was then covered. Their dogs at once pursued it, and, after a long chase, caught it alive in the gully of a sound behind Resolution Island. It ran with great speed, and on being captured uttered loud screams, and fought and struggled violently. It was kept alive for three days on board the "schooner, and was then killed. The precious body was roasted and eaten by the crew, each partaking of the dainty, which was declared to be delicious. Mr Mantell secured the skin. 'He states that, according to Native traditions, a large rail was contemporary with the rnoa, and formed an article of food among the Maori's ancestors.- It was known to the North Islanders as in oho, and to the South Islanders as takahe; but, he adds, the bird was considered by both Natives and Europeans to have been long before exterminated by the wild cats and dogs, an individual not having been seen or heard of since the arrival of the English colonists. To the Natives of the pas or villages on his homeward route and at Wellington this bird was a great novelty, and excited muqh interest." Shortly afterwards a second specimen was caught by some Maoris on Secretary Island, which forms the entrance of Doubtful and Thompson Sounds. .This specimen also was obtained by Mr Mantell, and both were sent to the British Museum,. where they still remain. Thirty years later, in 1879, some men on a rabbiting expedition on Te Anau Downs, between the Mararoa- and Upokororo Rivers, caught a third specimen, and forwarded the skin and skeleton to Dunedin. Thence it was forwarded to England, and sold to the Dresden Museum for £llO. Still 19 years later the fourth specimen was caught by Messrs D. and J. Ross—also at Lake Te Anau—in 1898. On August' 7, " while lying awake in their bunks, they heard a bird-call that struck them as being unusual. It came from the bush near the edge of the lake and about 100 yards from their camp. They thought that the.sound was not unlike a double call which is often made by the Californian quail, but was not so sharp and clear. In the evening, just before darkness set in, one of the brothers, while walking along the beach saw his dog disappear in the bush, and emerge shortly with a bird in its mouth. The bird was not dead, and it was immediately taken to tihe camp, where it expired shortly after its capture.. It was believed that, a Notornis had been .found. The captors immediately took boat to the foot of the lake, 25 miles away. Early hi the morning they .reached their destination with their precious prize, and had to convey it to Lumsden and on to Invercargill, from which place it was forwarded to Dunedin, and placed in the Museum. Later on it was the subject of a question in the House of Representatives by Mr M'Nab, the member for Mataura, and was purchased by the Government for £3OO.

This bird proved to be a young female, in a thoroughly healthy and clean condition. Professor Benham took it in hand at Dunedin. He is the first naturalist to examine the internal anatomy of Notornis. He states that an interesting fact in regard to the colour of the must bo of great value to it, is immediately noticeable in examining the .ekin In

different lights. He says: " The best effect is obtained when tlie light and the eye are in the same direction, and the front of the bird be looked at. But if we now look at the back of the bird, as it would be seen if it were running away irony the pursuer, no bright tint is seen. The colour is a dull, dirty grey, admirably adapted for concealing the bird as it escapes into the bush or amongst any growth higher than itself and capable of casting a shade. The white under-coverts of the tail form, however, a conspicuous mark in the bird, as in so many of-, its allies, and though more noticeable when seen from the side in contrast with the brighter colours of back and wings, yet, from behind, the white is not so noticeable as might be imagined. It is difficult to say what meaning is to be attributed to this white tail. In many cases it is a 'recognition mark/ as Wallace has called it, enabling members of a herd to find their fellows at night, or to follow the lead of others in escaping enemies. It usually occurs in animals of gregarious habit's, and we should judge therefrom that Notornis is gregarious. It is all the more curious, then, that isolated individuals should have been caught, and nothing seen of their fellows. But from what enemy does the Notornis flee? What native animal of the present day preys on Notornis? Probably none. Then this ' recognition maA:' must mean that they have come down from a time and place in which there were enemies:"

The four specimens obtained were found in 1847, 1849, 1879, and 1898. There may be survivors yet; and we have to remember that many parts of the high country in the Sounds or Fiord County have never been trodden by foot of man.