IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Otago Witness, Issue 3566, 18 July 1922, Page 8

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

THE WHITE-EYES’ FLIGHTS.

By

J. Drummond, F.L.S.. F.Z.S.

Nocturnal flights of pretty little -whiteeyes have attracted attention, during the past few weeks in widely-separated parts of the dominion. The first report was from Christchurch. Mr J. W. Murdoch sent a report of his observations at Oarnaru about a week later. Mr H. D. F. James wrote from Hawera on June 11: “I was pleased to learn that Mr Murdoch had caught the white-eyes’ notes as they flew over Oarnaru. About 9.30 p.m. on Mav 22, when I was going home, I heard plaintive sounds in the air. I stopped and listened for quite five minutes, and was convinced that the sounds were uttered by the familiar whiteeyes, which I have known from childhood as silver-eyes. I took particular notice of the sounds. They convinced me that the birds were travelling north, migrating to warmer climates probably. I had heard sounds before, but had not believed that they were uttered by white-eyes. I am convinced now that those birds migrate by night, a fact which, in mv opinion, solves the problem how the species first came to New Zealand from Australia.” “People who know the white-eyes and who watch their coming and going,” Dr R. Fulton writes, “have been surprised to find great numbers of them frequenting the suburbs of this city. Residents in all other parts of Otago, no doubt, have had the same experience. We see hundreds and thousands where formerly we saw- a score or two. There is no doubt that Mr Murdoch’s explanation, that they have come over the sea from Australia, is correct. Whether they wing their way from day to day, or get a chance to rest on smooth water, nobody knows. Mfiny must perish on the journey—overcome by fatigue, stormblown or frozen. In a very large Olearia forsteri, about seventy years old, on my lawn, there are usually many starlings, song thrushes, sparrows, goldfinches, and blackbirds; an occasional bell-bird sings entrancingly; a pied fantail shows itself now and then; and the riro-riro, or grey warbler, if often heard. This winter the white-eves are in full possession, and hardly any other species shows up except an odd song thrush. My Persian oat, which has been the laughing-stock of the family for years, owing to his Red Indian-like preparations and his careful, but futile, stalking of introduced birds, at last has come into his own. Hardly a day passes on which ho does not appear on the law’n playing with, and finally devouring, several w r hite-eyes.” White-eyes cluster around Dr Fulton s back door, and greedily take potato, bacon, bread, rice, anything, in fact. Many of them suffer from cold and fail off trees or fences on to the ground. When picked up and w'armed they recover. This occurrence is quite common at Dr Fulton’s on frosty mornings. He continues: —“There is no doubt in my mind that w'hite-6yes migrated from Australia this autumn.” He asks if any readers of this column throw light on a statement that a bird, believed to be a new arrival, was destroying fruit on the West Coast some months ago. He also wishes to know if any observers have seen a yellow-head, or bush canary, in the bush during the past year. His letter concludes: “ Rosella parrots are common in the J.eith Valley, and do damage to gooseberry bushes. Tuis are in evidence in very limited numbers on the earlv-fiow’ering kowliais. Tomtits are common on Pine Hid. and about two weeks ago a belated pukeko was reported to have been seen in the bush at Wcodend, a few yards from the, reservoir.” An interesting case of developing albinism is brought under notice by Miss E. M’Gall, Te Rapa, Franklin Junction, Auckland province. It is a blackbird that gradually is turning white In the grounds of the Te Aroha courthouse, which it fre quent-s, it has been seen during the past fotir years to become whiter each year. In a few' mere years, if it lives, it apparently will become snow-white, and if i£ lias pink eyes it then will be a pti-feet albino. White blackbirds, which are extreme cases of albinism, are not very uncommon; they are commoner in New Zealand ihan in the Old Country. At Wairongomai, some years ago, Miss M ‘Call saw' a female song-thrush with snowwhite wings. It was close to a clump of tall tea-tree. As it had a worm in its bill, she concluded that the nest and young were in the bushes. A search disclosed the nest and the parent feeding the young. A dose observation of the bird failed to discover any difference from any ordinary song-thrush except the w'hite wings. Four fully fledged young, inspected closely, seemed to be no different, from all other young song thrushes Miss M'Call had handled. “The parent,” =ho writes, “was very remarkable. I saw the all-white wings clearly as they were drooped when the bird fed her young.” Albinism in birds is caused by the absence, partial or complete, of black pigment present normally in the feathers and other parts The deposition of the black pig'ment often is caused by an injury to the pulp of the growing feather, but the pulp usually recovers after one or more moults. The red pupils of complete albinos are caused by blood vessels shining through them in the absence of the normal strong pigments."* Most albino birds are particularly shy, and Miss M‘Call was fortunate to have an opportunity to observe closely the white-winged song-thrush. “I see that the Old Country has forbidden the importation of the feathers of any bird except the ostrich and the eider duck,’ Captain O. Schulze writes from Auckland “It has taken bird-lovers many years to impose that prohibition. Can’t you and other New Zealand bird-lovers try to have a similar law made in this dominion ? There should be, also, more effective protection of our own birds. I would have drastic punishment given »o anybody who destroys a bird, unless it is a bird of prey. Farmers would not be so ready to destroy their feathered friends if they know that in the insect world they have 350,000 enemv species and less than a dozen friends.” " Captain Schulze made the following addition to bis letter, which is dated June 3 :“I am il! in boil, and every day. about 11 a.m., I have a little Visitor, a fantail. Fantails of all God’s little creatures the most friendly and trusting. My visitor flies several times round the room, takes a rest on the open door, has another flight, then a rc-t on the electric light globe, and leaves through the door, which is kept open about that tiipe. Who could hurt such a friend?”

Mr A. Burrows, West Oxford. North Canterbury, has sent some sable fungi with an intolerable smell, which seen: to be in the same class As the “obscene fungus.” Russell Low'ell mentions m one of his study-window essays. ‘"The species,” Mr Burrows explains “was unrecorded in New Zealand until the present time. I would have sent some specimens before, only they shrivel and disappear quickly after they are dug up. Canterbury Museum authorities inform me that the species Melanogaster ambigoius, a subterranean firm, and that the strong smell attracts / rats and mice, which eat the fungi and /lissemiiiate the spores, which pass uninjured through the animal’s alimentary canals.”