IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Otago Witness, Issue 3783, 14 September 1926, Page 68

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

THE GREY DUCK’S NBBT. By J. Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S. While bushfelling ou his property at Haunui, Eketahuna, on August It, Mr 11. M. Hansen saw a wild duck flv out of a gei-gei 30 feet high, in a tot v tree, about 10 feet from a small creek. To satisfy his curiosity he, with the help of a rata vine, climbed the tree. To his surprise he found in the gei-gei a nest with 12 eggs. He describes it as a very cosy place. He kindly left the totara and a small piece of bush around it in order that the duck might hatch its eggs in peace. He asks if the young ducks, when reaching the ground, simply fall down or are helped bv the parent. He does not think that they would fall from such a height without being killed. The question by Mr Hanson has been discussed and answered, but not authoritatively. Bushmen have a theory that when a grey duck—it probably was a grey duck, not a paradise duck, that Mr Hansen observed—nests in a tree, it carries its young to the ground on its back. Maoris seem to have the same idea. The evidence seems to show that the young ducks fall to the ground. Many years ago a North Island journal published an account of a grey duck tnat nested in a rata tree high up on a cliff overhanging the Wairoa River, Hawke’s Bay. The position of the nest was first noticed by the duck’s efforts to entice its young into the water. The duck was seen to fly out of the tree towards the river, uttering a peculiar note. Soon afterwards the six young ducks, one after another, fell over the edge of the nest on to the bank of the river, from which thev scrambled into the water.

Walking through the bush at Mount Peel, South Canterbury, Mr W. L. Barker saw a grey duck flv out of a broadlcat tree that hung over the bank of a stream. Climbing the tree he found in a hollow formed by two branches a beautiful nest lined with fine down and containing nine creamy-green eggs. Long pendent fernfronds completely hid the erev cluck from view when she was on the nest. The height from the ground was 13ft - i. The nest was on the side of the tree away from the stream. Creepers prevented the duck from getting in that side. She flew on a branch that ran at right angl . to the tree on the other side. Walkin ' along that branch she squeezed herself through a small arch formed bv two old stems curving and meeting, reached the other side of the tree about eight inches above her nest and slid into it.

Mr Barker visited the site regularly for a week, to discover how the voting would get down, but bad weather kept him away for two weeks, and he then found, to his disappointment, that the voung had been hatched and had gone. A close examination of the tree disclosed no sign of disturbance along the edges of the cavity in which the nest had been built, Or down he ferncovered trunk of the tree, such as might be expected if the voung had tried to descend on that side; but through the arch he found some down from the nest clinging to the bark, as if had followed that route. On the ground, beneath the arch, there was a small piece of mosscovered bark, detached from the edge of the arch, and evidently dislodged by the voung ducks in their first iourney from their old home into the world.

A grey duck, a few years ago, found a hollow in an old willow in the grounds of the Provincial Council Buildings, almost in the heart of Christchurch, a suitable abode. The willow grew’ within a few feet of the Avon. The nest was about 10ft from the ground. Grey ducks formerly nested, perhaps nest still, in the forked branches of large pohutukawa trees, 20ft or 30ft above the water, on Motutaiko Island, Lake Taupo. Sir Walter Buller there found a nest in almost the same position as is described by Mr Hansen. It was in a gei-gei that grew in the fork of a tree 20ft or more from the ground.

A visitor to Cook’s Rock, Mercury Bay, about 30 years ago, had some difficulty in landing, owing to a tremendous surge of the sea. Springing from the bow of the whale-boat, he landed on his hands and knees on sharp, jagged rocks and climbed up the islet, which stands between 36ft and 40ft out of the sea, and has a few stunted pohutukawa trees on its summit. Near the top, on the seaward side, there is a hollow. In it, the visitor was surprised to find a grey duck with 17 eggs. He almost placed his hand on her before she took wing, making for a lagoon on the mainland, about a quarter of a mile away.

Sedge and tangle, fern and tussock, on the ground are the usual sites selected by the grey duck. The nest often is near a lake or a stream, but it may be out on the plains Tar from w'ater, or on* a hillside. On Mr H. Guthrie-Smith’s sheep farm, Tutira, Hawke’s Bay, nests are built by the edges of lakes and the brims of rivers, a long way from water, and, not very rarely, on trees. A nest near an opeu grassy ride between flax and fern was 6in deep. The owner, sitting in it, was completely hidden from all sides and only her back and head were visible from above. The 6in sides were walls of down tightly compressed into thick felt. Mr Guthrie-Smith made preliminary arrangements to photograph the duck on its nest. The following morning he found that the eggs had been thrown out on all Bides and its edges trampled and flat. Blunt breaks on the ruined eggs and the presence of the whole clutch uneaten pointed t 6 the destruction having been the work of the duck herself, not of hawk, rat, or weasel. Always the nest is cleverly concealed, and always it is cosily lined with warm down. The grey duck is the '-ora* monest duck in Australia, as well as in New Zealand. In the Commonwealth, it usually nests on the ground in long grass or under a thick bush, but occasionally uses a hollow in’ a tree or a nest deserted by a crow or a hawk.

Early in the season, the shining cuckoo was reported from two North Island districts last month. Mr Newell Irving

writes from St. Kilda Farm, Awarwa River: “Just a line to let you know that we heard the pipiwharauroa’s notes about 3 p.m. on August 6. They were somewhat feeble, but distinct. They came from a clump of shelter-bush on our farm, on the banks of the Awaroa River, Whangape, some 20 miles north of Hokianga. They were heard bv my son and by me. The songster, judging by the tone of the notes, was tired or exhausted, as if it had just arrived at the end of its long journey overseas from the north/’ The other record is by Mr A. King. Waiuku, on the south arm of the Manakau Estuary, who states: “I heard the cuckoo singing in a tall pine tree near the township about 1 p.m. on August 3. Mr G. Arkle reports that he heard it twice this week, at Otaua and Glenbrook.”

The shining cuckoo and its less popular cousin, the long-tailed cuckoo, should be much in evidence at the end of this month, and the beginning of next month, and correspondents are asked to send records of its arrival in their districts, and, if possible, of its habits, particularly of its usurpation of other birds’ nests* As grey warblers, small, retiring grey birds with plaintive trills and notes, are mostly induced to become young cuckoos’ fosterparents, they should be carefully watched. The cuckoos’ eggs are about three-quarters of an inch long and brownish-olive. They are so attractive and distinctive that they cannot be mistaken. The grey warbler’s eggs are smaller. They are very fragile, white, or suffused with a pinkish blush, spotted with red, principally at the larger end, and occasionally pure white. There was a very good record last year of the shining cuckoo’s arrival, about 80 observers sending dates, in some cases with interesting notes on observations.

Ants that, raided houses in Auckland this winter are not natives, Mr W. W. Smith, of New Plymouth, states, but Asiatics He supplies their popular name, “sugar-ant.” given to them l>ecause they prefer sugar to other foods. These ebony insects established themselves in New* Zealand many years ago. Thev increase prodigiously, swarm into houses, devour or carry off ali kinds of food, and make themselves a further menace bv crawling on sleeping children and disturbing them. Their industry and their application of labour to the general welfare of their communities, Mr Smith states, is remarkable. They may be prevented from attacking food on dining-tables and disturbing sleepers in bed by placing the feet of the tables and of the beds in shallow dishes of water. They may be caught in large numbers by spreading sheets of paper in their haunts, sprinkled with sugar or honey. When ants are on the paper it should be shaken into boiling water or thrown into the fire. Mr Smith explains that their annual nuptial flight takes place in January, when they disperse over towns and cities. During these flights many individuals drop to the ground, shake off their wings, and immediately search for new sites for colonies.

A visit from a wood-pigeon is reported by Mr A. 11. Brown. 371 Mount Eden 'road, Auckland. It settled in a tree near his house. It seemed to be very tame, although within 50 feet of the house it took no notice of members of the household. After spending some time pluming itself and enjoying the sunshine it flew off in the direction of the domain.