WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND

Otago Witness, Issue 3413, 13 August 1919, Page 61

WILD LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND

By the Hon. G. M. Thomson, F.L.S. No. 55.—THRUSHES: NATIVE AND INTRODUCED. When European settlers first came to this country, and while the native forest remained practically untouched except on its outskirts, one of the commonest birds met with in the bush was the native thrush, called by the Maoris piopio. This name is suggested by its distinctive whistling note.. I knew this bird well in the early days, but only met with it in the Southland bushes and in the West Coast Sounds district. In these sheltered localities it hopped about quietly, looking for food, and paying little attention to anyone who intruded on its quiet domain. But T. H. Potts described it as 'living more in the open in the back country of Canterbury, and his description is worth reproducing. "It seems to delight in opemng3 found in the river beds between long belts of tutu and other scrub. There it may be seen hopping along the ground, or fluttering about the lower sprays of shrubs, flying out to the spits of sand 'or drifted trees that lie stranded in the river bed. On some of the longer-formed spits that are becoming clothed with vegetation it searches „among the burry acsena ( 'pmpiri") and snips off the fruit stalks of moss, picking the seeds of some trailing veronicas. It generally goes along the ground in a deliberate manner, and hops with both feet together. With each movement there is a slight flutter of the wings, and a flit of the tail. When it is approached too closely it leaves its perch, always descending at first, as though safer when near to, or actually on, the ground. Rising on the wing, it gains momentum by a succession of hops." Sir James Hector, when doing the geological survey of the West Coast Sounds, found this bird very abundant, and on one occasion counted' no fewer than 40 in the immediate vicinity of his camp. They Were very tame, sometimes hopping up to the very door of his tent to pick up crumbs. He noticed that the camp dogs were making sad havoc among them, and expressed the opinion that they would soon be extinct. Mr John Buchanan, who accompanied Hector on this survey, said they were . formerly very common near Dunedin, but were exterminated by wild cats.

There are two species of native thrush in New Zealand, one (Turnagra tanagra) confined to the North Island, and the other (T. crassirostris), so named from its thicker bill, to the South Island. These birds appear to have lost the power of prolonged flight a long time sufficiently long to have enabled the differences to arise which cause systematists to place them in different species. They fly strongly in the bush, but apparently have no sustained flight. The genus Turnagra is confined to New Zealand, and the birds are sufficiently different from ordinary thrushes to have caused Sir Walter Buller to raise them to the rank of a distinct family, the Turnagridae, as distinct from the Turdidaa. These birds 'are about llin long, the tail being about sin> and they have the upper parts olive brown in colour; but the throat is white in the North Island species,, and the breast and abdomen ashy grey; while in the other the forehead and throat are marked with reddish, while the. breast, abdomen, and under-tail coverts are marked with broad longitudinal spots of yellowish white. The North Island bird is a stouter and somewhat larger species than its southern congener. Buller kept one of these birds in confinement. He says of it: 'T observed that the bird was always most lively during or immediately preceding a shower of rain. He often astonished me with the power and variety of his notes. Commencing , sometimes with the loud strains of the thrush, he would suddenly change his song to a low* flute-note of exquisite sweetness; and then abruptly stopping, would give vent to a loud cry, as if mimicking a pair of Australian magpies confined in the same aviary. During the early morning he emitted at intervals a short flute-note, and when alarmed or startled uttered a sharp repeated whistle." Speaking of the early morning singing of native birds in the unbroken bush, Buller says : "For more than an hour after this concert had ceased, and the sylvan choristers had dispersed in search of their daily food, one species continued to enliven the valley with his musical notes. This bird was the plonk), of New Zealand thrush, unquestionably the best of our native songsters. His song consists of five distinct bars, eachj. of which is repeated Six or seven times in succession ; but he often stops abruptly in his overture to introduce a variety of other notes, one of which is a peculiar rattling sound, accompanied by a spreading of the tail, and apparently expressive of ecstasy. Some of the notes are scarcelv distinguishable from those of the yellow-head: and I 'am inclined to think that the bird is endowed with mocking powers." Buller, in the first edition of his great book, stated that the bird was common in all suitable localities throughout the southern portion of the North Island, but was extremely rare in the country north of the Waikaio. He then expressed the belief that it would soon be very scarce. This was in 1873. Writing in the second edition, 15 years later, he stated that it was one of the rarest of our birds. I know of at least one locality in the North Island, and several in the Soutli Island, where it is still to be found; but it is one of those quiet, slowly-moving birds which would readily fail a nrey to cats, dogs, or weasels, and therefore its haunts should not be made known to the public at large. Verv little has been published about its nesting habits. One nest hi the Canterbury Museum, which was found in the fork of a tree, was loosely made of pieces 6f bark, moss, and grass. The egg is about long, and Is white, spotted with, dark brown.

v The song thrush, or mavis (turdus musious), whicn nas only been In tne country -for a little over mty years, is now one oi the mo:»t abundant birds in many parts of JNew Zealand, it is so well known as hardly to need description, and yet if one were to hand a dead thrush to many town dwellez-s, even in come of our little towns, it would be a surprise to notice how many would fail to recognise it. The back, wings, and tail are olive-brown, the under surface white or yellowish-white, with dark nearly black -spots j the latter are the most conspicuous feature of the bird's colouring. Tne eye is a soft, brown colour. The under wing-coverts are of a rich, golden hue. Thrushes are mostly found among shrubs, trees, and hedgerows, and they seek their food especially on the ground. But. when a thrush flies, it does so with great vigour and rapidity, sometimes at a considerable height. I was delighted one summer evening when at Waihola, to hear the song of a thrush quite late, long after* tne sun w«s set, ana most of tne light had laded cut of the sky. I could barely see the brrd as it passed overhead, but i could follow its flight for a long distance as it cam© sailing dovro a long valley leading to the iak», and apparently flew across to the other side. It new at a good height, and sang a soft, sweet note as it hew. The general mode of progression on the ground is by leaping, and it is interesting to stand and observe these birds as they hop over a lawn, and stop with the head on one side to watch for a worm or other object suitable for food. When one sees the end of a worm at a hole, it leaps quickly towards it, nips it in it 3 beak and pulls away till it gets it out. If it misses its catch, it drums on the .ground and picks at the earth in its attempts to get hold of its prey. Where snails abound the thrush picks up the shell in its beak, and knocks it repeatedly against a stone till it breaks it, and can get at the mollusc inside. On the seashore they feed on whelks and periwinkles. Any one who has tried to break the shell of a whelk knows how hard and seemingly unbreakable it is*, #et the thrush succeeds in doing it by a succession of smart blows. MacGrillivray, who watched these birds carefully in the Hebrides, where they are very common, describes the process. "Many years ago, having in the course of my littoral rambles in Harris, frequently heard a sharp sound like that of a small stone struck upon another, I endeavoured to discover its cause, but for a long time in vain, until at length, being one day in search of birds, when the tide was out, I heard the well-known chink, and standing still discovered at a distance, in a recess formed by two flat stones, at the upper part of the shore a bird moving its head and body alternately upwards and downwards each downward motion being followed by the noise which had hitherto been so mysterious. Running up to the place I found a thrush, which, flying off, left a whelk newly broken, but with the animal in it,,lying amidst a heap of fragments round a smooth stone. Having some years after mentioned the circumstance to a scientific, friend in Edinburgh, I was favoured with an assurance of the utter impracticability of the feat, which is, indeed, at first mention not very credible, although one may easily satisfy himself that a whelk, thick as it is, is very easily broken by knocking it smartly against a hard body." Mr Jack, formerly teacher at Hooper's Inlet, wrote m'e twenty years ago that he found heaps of periwinkles which the thrushes were in the habit of bringing and breaking at the same stone. Recently I came on quite a large heap of broken whelk shells on the shore of the Peninsula above Macandrew's Bay, where a thrush had evidently been for a long time in the habit of bringing its whelks along and breaking them on a particular stone. The thrush in New Zealand-builds the, same kind of nest>that its predecessors in Britain built, and which I was very familiar with in my boyhood. It is usually placed in a thick bush or a hedge, and is made of slender twigs, roots, grass, and moss, and always lined with a thin layer of mud or cow-dung. The cavity is about four inches in diameter, and rather less in depth, and in it are laid from four to six eggs, which are about an inch long, of a regular oval form, and are bright, bluish-green in colour, with scattered spots of brownish black, especially at the larger end. Ido not know the earliest or latest dates at which the eggs are laid, but T have found the eggs at the beginning of October, and have seen the fledglings about the garden on November Ist. Usually two broods are reared in the season. Before the breeding season the cock-birds often have savage fights, and I have come upon a pair sitting opposite each other on their tails, with their bills gaping, and both utterly exhausted by the fierceness of their combat. At other times thev can be seen in a regular rough-and-tumble scrimmage, falling over each other in their blind fury. I do not think thev do each other much harm, but no doubt the vanquished one knows when he has had enough, and abandons the . field—and the lady—to his stronger rival. The song of the thrush is well known, but is most difficult to describe, for different birds have very different notes and repititions. Tn our own familv circle we used to recosnise different calls. Sitting on the topmost branch of a tree, one would call "Stuartee, Stuartee, Stuartee"; another's phrase was "Be?sie Cree, Bessie Cree. Bessie Cree" : and TOon. They besrin to sing with tis earlv.dn May. and continue right on to January, after which they are mostly silent.