IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10106, 18 March 1911, Page 8

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

,—~~*. NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND. (By J. DRUMMOND, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) The story of the adventures- of a Ehining cuckoo chick, begun on February 4, is continued by Mr C. Mahoney, headmaster of the school at Waitakaro, Tuparoa, on tho east coast of the North Island. The chick, which was found in the nest of a grey warbler, soon became ■very tame, and cried m Jtaco-jjnftion- when Mr Mahoney ar> proaohed the cage in which it was kept. Sometimes he took it out amongst the trees, seated on his finger, and it pecked its food from the leaves of the wild cherry trees in his garden. It consumed surprisingly largo .quantities of the leech slug that infests those trees. He allowed it to hop amongst the leaves, but it made no attempt to go far away, although t could fly fairly well. One morning his daughters heard it screeching loudly in an unusual way. On running to its cage, a stray, cat was seen clawing at it through the wires. The cat had entered by a window and-had climbed up some shelving to reach the young cuckoo, which was slightly wounded, and was in great terror. After that it struggled fiercely all day long, to escape from the cage, began to pine, and one night died m its sleep. It took food regularly up to the time of its death, which took place on Boxing Night, arid which was a disappointment to Mr Mahoney, as he specially wished to keep his captive under observation at the time of the suckoos' migrations. On the morning ;of Januarv 12 his son reported the presence of a young shining cuckoo in the bush. When they fecund the bird it was flitting about from tree to tree, pecking here and there, and evidently quite able to obtain its own food. In the neighbouring Bhrubs there were several white-eyes, and one of these birds occasionally hopped timidly towards the cuckcO and held up an insect. The cuckoo took it greedily,. but. always drove the whiteeye away by pecking at it savagely. The little comedy was repeated over and over: again; but Mr Mahoney is unable to say whether the young cuckoo, by its actions, meant "Go for more." or "Get away. I don't like you;- • "Apparently," he says, "this strange bird has to reverse the process of Nature; the young weanß the fosterparent instead of the foster-mother weaning the young."

Mr Mahoney reports the arrival of the red-poll in his district. This English bird, one of the most acceptable introductions into New Zealand, seems to. be spreading, fairly rapidly, and is now reported from many districts where previously it was quite unknoTn. A still more interesting announcement is made by Mr Mahoney. "Last year," he says, "I saw a bird which answered the description of the stitch-bird in the bush near this place. It had the characteristic white feathers behind the ears, white feathers on the wings, and yellow breast. My children and I watched this bird for some time on the edge of the bush, but aa we were on horseback we could not follow it up., I looked about the same place next day, and often afterwards, but never again had the good fortune to see it. I did not tell you of it at the time, because I hoped' to make sure and because you so definitely state that it is extinct on the mainland and probably on the Little Barrier also. However, I now record what I saw for future reference." 'Thestitchbird is believed to be one of the rarest birds in the world.; Some years ago it was commonly believed that the bird was quite • extinct. Professor A. Newton, in his ••'.' Dictionary of Birds," published in 1896, said: " The species, wljich was made known only in 1839, &eems to have had a limited range in the North Island of New Zealand, where it is believed to be now extinct, and though a small number may still exist on some of the off-lying islets, its extirpation can be only a question of a few years, yet its cause one can but guess." It is now known that the species is fairly well represented on the Little Barrier Sanctuary, and there is ho reason to doubt that Mr Mahoney saw an individual —a male —on the East Coast.

Mr Andrew Wilson, of Opotlki, in the Bay of Plenty, writes in regard to the notes of the bell-bird, the crow and the tui. He says that most bushmen and settlers, like Mr G. Hutchins, who wrote on the subject some time ago, know the kokako, or crow, by the name bell-bird, but he thinks that the .makomako, or. koremako, which might be said to hare the.official title, is undoubtedly the real bell-bird. He expresses the bell-bird's notes in music, and says that the letters A, B, C, Q, ■ V-V represent the nearest approach of *tbe notes to words. These chimes are rung mostly at sunrise and sunset. In the earJy days, when settlers first came to New Zealand, there were countless thousands of bell-birds near the coasts, and he says that it must have been a delightful experience for them to listen to the sweet chimes in the early morning and just before dusk. "People who came from a country where beDs were associated with manv of their ceremonies and where the sound of bells, entered into every important event in their lives," he says, " would not have to make a great call upon their imaginations to be reminded by the birds of the chimes they had heard across the sea. It is necessary only to note the number of songs about bells in the English language to realise the position bells occupied in the minds of- the people. The early colonists delighted to surround themselves with associations and remembrances of the Old Land; and that, a very old colonist told me, was why the makomako was called the bell-bird. Its song brought to mind the chimes that rang at Home. ■ Now, when a solitary bell-bird is heard sounding its note occasionally, people wonder why the species was given the title it bears."

As to the tui, Mr Wilson believes that it has four songs, one for each season of the year. He has heard the remarkable metalHc note which led Mr J. E. Skilton, of Rdckville, Collingwood, to beKeve. that some person was striking a hidden anvil, as described in this, column on December 31. Mr Wilson has heard the.note repeatedly in places where bells were unknown and anvils were impo'ssible. He pays a tribute to the tui's power of mimicry. "Away in the misty past," when he, as a boy, went out with a party into the back-blocks, a Maori, who was the happy possessor of a concertina, piayed two bars of "Champagne Charlie," aad as he could play nothing else, he played the old tune again and again. As if this was not sufficient, an observant tui in the trees took it up..' and the forest was made to ring with "Champagne Charlie." Mr Wilson has had many tame native birds. Amongst them was a tui which he describes as the most marvellous mimic he came in contact" with. His children at present have a tame pukeko, which took up its residence in the garden without an invitation. It invites its friends to see it at night, end they all enjoy themselves, to the serious detriment of the garden.

Mr W. L. C. Williams, of Cambridge, in the Waikato district, has also had experiences with the bell-bird. A's far V#flk as he remembers, right into the "Ibrtbs," he &ays, he knew this bird ia t-ia small woods around Auckland. It was not until the morning of January 12, 1858, however, that he first heard the famous chimes, consisting of ■ thousands of choruses, each member using twelve notes. Attracted by the music, he made special observations of the bell-bird's habits. They assembled about five o'clock in the evening. As far as ho could see there seemed to be -thirteen birds in each chorus, twelve songsters and a leader. In 1863 the birds almost disappeared from the disttrict, owing, he believes, to the increase in the number of rats and the beos* |He supports tie theory tnat

honey bees have led to the disappearance of bell-birds, and says that he has frequently seen these birds with swollen tongues, stung while honey was being extracted from flowers resorted to by bees.