IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13791, 24 October 1908, Page 9

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE.

NOTES ON NATTUAL JIISTOKY IX

NEW ZEALAND

(JJ\ James Drunimond, i'.L.S , I ( '.Z.S.)

Jt is \ery strange that, although ih«> wood pigeon is one ol the most plentiful ineinocrs ot the nali\e a\iiauna, its mst has .seldom been soon, e\en by men who have -.pent many >e;w- ni then In es in the liirc.t. The ne->t s aiehileetural beauty is not all in proportion to its rarit\. It is one or I! 1 ." crudest and iii(!<t primitive attempts at construction in all bird-land. Ihe big pigeon, winch has been endowed with greater beauty than ,'iiy other Nc.\ Zealand bird, shows neither t.-'-lc ir:r ingenuity in regard to \X~, net. Jt gathers a few twig->. often dried, places them loos"ly and care!' -ly together, often in <he fork oi a tuc, makes a slight hollow in the centre, and calls the L-trueUire ol a nest. It is uucomiortablo and untidy, it aiiordo no protection to the young against either rain or wind; it seems hardly able to bear the lord's weight; and it is so utterly devoid ol anything approaching to compactness that the eggs may frequently bo soon by a person standing underneath.

One of the iew instances of pigeons nesting near human habitations is recorded by the Rev. AY. Silencer, who was pastor at Tarawera many years ago. In his garden there were some oak. elm and walnut trees, together wilh nati\e plants. Kor two years a pair o! pigeons had (heir home in the trees, within o()ft of M r Spencer's windows. It is believed that they would ha\o continued to breed there had not a boy who attended the Maori school tried a new fowling-piece upon them, w it h fatal results.

The rarity oi the pigeon's nest ii referred to by Xiv S. Percy Smith in ;; recent letter ho sent me. "A.- an n!d bushmau, and as one who has tra\crsod the Now Zealand forests for more ili;.n (lily \ears," he says, "1 ha\e olten been surprised at the extremely i"\\ cas<v> recorded of iinding the pigeon's nest. In the whole of my experience 1 have seen only two of; these no-,ts. One had been constructed in a most untidy manner in a thicket of supplejacks ; it contained only one egg. The other, which was also very untidy, was in some low scrub. It contained a young bird, which was kept m our camp for some months and then died. ]}oth of these nests were north of Auckland. 'Ihis rarity of the pigeon's nest is so remarkable that I have made it a point to inquire from many old busiimon if they have ever seen it. Ojilv once did 1 got a reply in the affirmative, and even then my informant had only scon one nest. Te Heuheu Tukino, the present worthy chief of Taupo, is a great fowler, but he told me that in all his wanderings he had ne\er seen a pigeon's nest. _ At the Chatham Islands, where pigeons were formerly very plentiful, they leave the main island in the breeding season and cross eighteen miles of sea to Motu-Hopc, a little scrub-covered island lying southeast from Cape Fournier, on the main island, and there according to the natives, they breed."

A North Canterbury correspondent writes: "I read with great interest the recent account of New Zealand gulls. It may be of some profit to readers ot the ( Taranaki Herald to know that two of those mentioned, the black backed and the red-hilled, have breeding places in North Canterbury, in the upper reaches of the Wa'imakariri. Thousands pass from the East Coast, about. "NVoodend, to their roosting places. They have twenty-five miles to travel every night, just before dark, and they return at daylight in the morning. In September they are not so regular, hut hang about the roosting places till later in the day. The breeding season begins with tlie blackbacked species in September, and with the rod-billed species much later on. The latter does not come inland till-Oe-tober. As soon as the breeding season commences, numbers of harrier hawks appear, and a continual fiurht goes on all through the season. The number of eggs and young eaten by the hawks must be considerable, as the number or young seen is very small in comparison with the number oi adult birds. Iha\« counted twenty-five hawks hovering over the nesting grounds of less than an acre, watching, apparently, for nn opportunity when the old birds would leave their nests."

"On Te Aroha." says Mr 15. Leys writing on August 23. "I saw so?u<> k;>k;i, erroneously called 'caw -caw' by settler-,, the übiquitous tirairaka (fantail), th" nroriro (grey w arbh>r\ and plenty of tuis (parson birds). The last, oi' (oiiim,, is the musician or New lami toiests; jiis glorious notc-v maybe h"ard at almost any time. Some songsters- of other days have, unfortunately, disappeared. I also heard, but did not see, some kakariki, small <>reen parrakeots. Among the plants there are nimiv of absorbing intere:it. th(> iH'inei (dracophyllum latifolium) hem" noficeable near the summit. The ma<^ nilicent ])ijriri, ncnv rather a rare tree comparatively speaking, was in flower I was surprised not to nonce any of (he Mle-smelling hupiro (coprosina toetidisbima), though 1 do , U)t Si , v It was not there. It is usually very common on hill-tops, hoim' a cold-lovmg piaiit. The kareno (suppleiack) has fruited wonderfully prolihcally this year, the ground " being strewn « ith berries that have ripened and fallen. Of other plants, excluding the usual forest trees, there w ere nikau. horopito (drimys) earina (not flowering, of course), kidney and maiden-hair ferns (1 he Maoris call the former "dogs ears" _ taringa kuri) and great numbers of Pon^a (silver tree-lorn), u ,iq j},,. hjaejv ' i.eoforn (mamaku). TJie young troiuls called pitau, of the latter were eaten by Ihe Maoris, after preparation " "I have been watching some starlings on a house opposite my front windows for at least six weeks'," says Dr Fijlton, writing from Dunedin "and I liave c-ome to ;iip conclusion ii u ,t they were evidently two niil Je J, lr ds. wjuch took possession of two holes under the iron root, one at the corner and one half-way along the gutter, about twelve feet away, fcach started in June clearing Out iuit|i«s«i. stjt.J^s,. s, MM y M „,.] ,j, lf . material, but dicl'hWg > fly up and down and sit at each hole Ug-jiging away and occasionally uttering their funny little neighiiur sound At t.nms, also, one or both would make a curious rattling rhvthmiy,«! lio'se—you could see the beak <roAYV st , aiu " p ' 1Im "»>g siJentlv. well throttled down. These two birds sat and neighed every morning, faciiWlie north for many weeks, and at lasfaptt s t! v o° n TV lV V* liJil^ ---- the two. The antics and wheezin- and ne.ghuig that each mnle made to Temp her to his own j.ariieuhM- home U rnorrin-r Vhich one has succeeded do not yet know, as the weather l, n ' Micldenly Ucy,.,, B »,.,. rtl , d sIJJ „j , !p! p dj*a W)W )e rt ,ed tor the time being it

any iate, i ha\e not seen the I irds stalling to call" material. m>, perhaps ncitlici c iiArnici ha> yet. prevailed. 1 supj>')>i % t hc-c two male-, ha\o nested in t!ic-.' v jiLicc-, in th" p;<M. and arc now waiting for mnv mates. What a lot '>i mi'M'c^un;; u.lormation one could m.tke ll one had only some means oi ldentiiymg individual birds."