FROM NATURE'S BOOK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12647, 3 June 1919, Page 7

FROM NATURE'S BOOK.

NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND. (By J. DRUMMOND, F.L.S., P.Z.S.) IV lute herons have been in evidence in several parts of the Dominion recently. .In most cases, they have been accompanied by blue herons or whitefronted herons, both of which have a bluish plumage. Some four weeks ago a white heron graced a lagoon on Mr J. C. Anderson’s property at Stirling, Otago. The iagoon is a sanctuary, and the visitor remained there for at least two weeks. Mr Anderson had not seen a white heron in that district for forty years. Ho believes that the visitor came from the West Coast of the South Island on a high wind. It may have belonged to the heronry near Okarito, tile only one this species now has in New Zealand. The accompanying blue heron probably was not am Australian as stated, but a New Zealander also belonging to the West Coast. All three herons are found in both Australia and New Zealand. Mr d. S. II- Creamer, principal lighthouse keeper at Castlepoint, states’ that a. white heron arrived at the lighthouse on May 3. It is the first he has seen. It has a, pure white plumage and long, slender legs.” he writes, ‘‘and is very graceful.” Blue herons nest near the lighthouse. Another report of the white heron is from Mr H. B. ■Matthews, Ivaita, who states that when a party of which he was a member was returning from a launch trip on the Rangaunu Harbour, North Auckland, on March 29, and was coming round a ' big bend below Mr Oosson’s, on the Awanui [River, tliero was a, good view of one of these birds. Judge Puckey told Mr Matthews that the white heron s Maori name is “ kotuku-rerenga-tahi,” meaning practically a bird seen once in a lifetime. Mr Gilbert H- Mate. Cambridge, stares that when he and Ids brothers were young, boating and fishing in Whangam Harbour were the greatest pleasure their father could give them. On one occasion, close to Limestone Island, he was surprised and delighted to haul up a small hammer-headed shark about two feet long. Somo years previously his brother caught a ham-mer-head in Auckland Harbour. A correspondent at Kaihu, Hobson County, Auckland, reports that hammer-heads have been caught in Kaipara, HarbourT hen a picnic party at Shelly Beach was embarking on to a launch a large specimen came alongside and watched the proceedings in evident interest. Its head seemed to be about fifteen inches long. Mr 0. Blair, Pukekohe, saw a specimen that had been cast up on a beach at the Great Barrier Island about ten years ago; it was less than three feet long, slim in shape, dark, almost black, on top and white below. When Captain Gilbert Mate some rears ago, travelled in the Wakatere from, I names to Auckland, he and a friend who was with him counted twenty-two hammer-heads which were swiuiruin** near the surface. “ VMjiteheads are reported to bo fairly plentiful iii the extensive, densely forested districts of the King Country whore they are not disturbed by eivilil I saturn. Mr A. H. Browne, of Mauurmi, | who supplies a note on these birds, , states that they, like the white-eyes, move about in small flocks, and also resemble the white-eyes in actively fitting from branch to branch in their iiuost for insects, which, Mr Brown believes, is their only food. They seldom' leave iho forests. They always are moving, seem to bo tame, and aro not readily frightened. Their continuous low twitterings give an impression that they are carrying on a cluvfciv conversation amongst themselves.’ When they are disturbed by a dog or any other animal, they gabber together and chatter as if they aro scolding the cause of their displeasure. Air Brown is afraid that as they are purely forest birds they will disappear as the forests aro destroyed. Air J. B. Armstrong. Burlington Street. Sydenham, who bos done a. srreat deal of work amongst New Zealand plants, has sent me. some branches of Muhlenbeckia ephedroides. “This is a, curious plant which grows on some of our shingle riverbeds, and which I collected recently_in the bed of the Waipaj'a River, North Canterbury,” Mr Armstrong writes. 1 ‘ The brandies lay quite fiat on the shingle, and look like rushes scattered over the ground. The calyx, after flowering, changes into a white, fleshy, transparent object with the black nut in the centre. The nuts are eaten by native larks, the white i calyx. no doubt, seeming as « guide I

to the birds.” Mr Armstrong also has sent 13 10 head of a strawberry clover (Trifolimn fragilirum). It was introduced from England, and is found in damp places on the Waipara. He draws attention to tho curious membranous pods, and states that the flowers a.ro bluish and that the foliage resembles that of the common white clover. A description of a fight between'a rat and a tuatara bv Mr H. Miles, of )y hangarei, has brought a note from Oaptam Mair, stating that in former years residents of 'Whangarei often caught tuataras on the Hen and Chicken Islands and kept them as pets, and lie believes that the tuatara seen by Mr Miles had escaped from captivity. He has found many tuatara jaws on the East Coast, and in caves on the eastern side of Lake Taupo. He accepts this as proof of Maori traditions that these interesting reptiles once were very plentiful on the mainland of New Zealand. He blames rats- for their disappearance. A correspondent at New Plymouth has asked if tho house sparrow which he sees in the streets of that town, and which may lie seen in every town and village in New Zealand, is identical with tho sparrow on the housetop to which the psalmist compared himself. There were no house sparrows in the Holy Land when tho Psalms were written. There are none there now, unless they have arrived within tho lastffo r years, which is improbable. The forty-seven translators of tho Old Testament, 1007; found in the 102 nd Psalm a, Hebrew word that obviously meant a bird. The houso sparrow was the commonest bird in England three hundred years ago, as it is now, and as it is notoriously a frequenter of house-tops, they concluded that it was the particular species to^which the psalmist referred. It is unlikely that any of tho translators ever had been in the Holy Land. In any case, it was not the fashion in tho time of King James I. to,observe wild birds—it was a century before the birth of Gilbert; White, tho first English naturalist—and even if house sparrows had been present in the Holy Land the fact hardly would have been considered sufficiently important for travellers to note. The translators concluded that the common species of bird in England was the common species in the Holy Land, a mistake that could be made with much excuse three hundred years ago. The Hebrew word used by tho psalmist is “tzippor.” The context would show anybody who had observed birds’ habits that this probably ■would not moan the house sparrow. The house sparrow is one of the most gregarious birds in the world It is seldom seen singly, and no writer; in order to make clear the lonely solitariness of his position, would be likely to say, “ I am as a sparrow that sitteth ' alone’ on tho house-top.” The word “tzippor” occurs about forty times in the Hebrew text of tho Old Testament. It is rendered “sparrow” only twice. _ In all other cases it is rendered “bird” or “fowl.” Later naturalist seem to think that tho bird to which the psalmist compared himself was tho blue thrush, a solitary bird, which also shuns the society of members of its own species of birds, but loiters near human habitations. : The hyssop that sprihgeth on tho wall has been the subject of discussion amongst botanists for many years. Tho most erudite and elaborate paper on the controversy was written by Dr J. Forbes Royle, who, after careful investigation, concluded that the hyssop is the prosaic caper plant whose flower buds are used with sauce to flavour boiled mutton. Springing from a wall is quite a characteristic position of the caper plant. It springs from the walls of Rofue, Florence and other Italian cities. It has not been introduced into New Zealand. Capers used by housewives hero are imported by grocers. New Zealanders who visit the Holy Land will not see there any native" New Zealand birds, but. they maysee, especially on Mount Olivet, gome, species that wall remind them of their homes. Amongst these are the goldfinch, the chaffinch, the greenfinch tire blackbird, the song-thrush and tlie starling. All these species, in Palestine are used for food. The simple methods of fowling probably are the sanio as those referred to in the Old Testament. A report by Mr J. A. Henry that a kaka sometimes entered his hut on tho Mahiuapua Creek, near Hokitika, many years ago, supports a statement by the late Mr W. T. L. Travers that kakas entered his house at Lake Guyon. in the Southern Alps, in search of food. This occurred in the winter. They entered unhesitatingly, made themselves at'borne, and even on specially inclement nights, roosted on a cross-beam in tho kitchen. Two learnt to open the door of the dairy and helped fhemselves to butter and cheese, which, evidently, they highly appreciated. In the evening several waited on the' eaves of the house to he fed, and they came readily to receive from his hand pieces of bread spread thickly with butter and sugar. They usually dropped the bread as soon as they had scraped off tho butter and sugar. If one happened to finish his portion before the others had finished theirs, he always took his share of his neighbour’s, which was yielded without the slightest demur. They were fond of ■ raw r fish. Thcv hovered in ' front of a sheep’s pluck hung on a tree, in the same way as a humming-bird hovers in front of a flower. "When they wore anxious to enter the house thev took up positions on the windoiv-sills and beat at the panes'with their bills until they were admitted.