NATURE AND MAN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 30, 6 February 1939, Page 6

NATURE AND MAN

NEED FOR NEW DEAL FOR GODWITS COMPLETE PROTECTION SOME DAY

It has to be said to the credit of the Hon. W. E. Parry that he has gone further than other Ministers of Internal Affairs in the protection of godwits from pot-hunters. The killing of these birds is really an offence against the primary principle of true sport; it is merely callous butchery. Mr. Parry will please more than 99 per cent of New Zealanders if he puts the godwit on the protected list permanently. “We read and sometimes hear that godwits make good eating.” remarks a contributor to the'“N.Z. Railways Magazine". “No one could find fault with a marooned sailor adding godwits to his diet of shell fish and seaweed. But u hy it is that well-fed men, with beef and potatoes abounding, should want to eat pigeons, larks and godwits, is beyond my understanding. It would appear that there are some men whose sole reaction to anything is to wonder how it would fraternise with their own gastronomical apparatus. Kill, skin, and eat. Is this their only appreciation? And there exists in the varied ranks of the Dominion's sportsmen those who shoot godwits for fun of the thing! Now a godwit, even on the wing, is only a hoy's gun game. But I have known of miscalled sportsmen who' have sat on beaches, enticed godwits to within a few feet of their guns and then claimed a great bag! “I think we all, gun men or pacifists, pay our respects to the courage of those true sportmen who pit their hunting skill against considerable personal danger. Such men as these seek out the wild boar, the rough wild hill and mountain frequenting deer, wapiti and thar; or go further afield for their gunning. But what can we say of those godwit murderers who entice, shoot, bag, and brag concerning those graceful birds before they get their chance to die more nobly out on the wide clean salt seas? What you would say of them, is, I imagine, unprintable. And what I say of them is immediately censored by my examiner, the Editor. But he does not say you may not have a guess.” Birds at School. Custav Eckstein, in “Canary, the History of a Family", tells this story:— "I discovered that Father Canary had what, among men, is spoken of as consciousness of leadership. When Father planted his feet on the edge of the music book on the Steinway rack and prepared to sing, I was always able tn make anybody see how much he resembled that big-bodied Belgian violinist, Ysaye, who also planted his feet as if he were determined to draw the molodics up through his body out of the earth. But Father was not only an extraordinary singer. He was an extraordinary teacher too. “I never knew that a bird-lesson could be that formal, or a bird teacher have such patience. Ordinarily Father taught one or two sons at a time, but more if more drifted in. He would sing their notes with them till they got them clear, perhaps three notes, then lengthen the three, sing upwards from them, and only after that start the trills. In the course of a lesson. Father might wander off on something that interested him more as artist than as teacher, and for that he liked quiet and if he did not get quiet might lean across and give someone near him a whack. But the lessons were lessons, unmistakably; and because of much hearing of the piano he knew things ether canaries never learn. In the best periods the male voices all modulated as fast as the piano—did not follow the

melody, but < hanged key as the piano changed key.” Several friends have told me that they have observed tuis teaching their sons to sing. It must be a very inspiring spectacle. Bell-bird Chorus on Kapiti Island. "Probably nowhere else in New Zealand can the morning chorus of native birds be heard in as great a volume as on Kapiti,” wrote T. D. Taylor in the "New Zealand Railways Magazine”. One can count it as a privilege indeed io have listened to it when several hundreds of tinethroats offer their benediction to the dawn. “The time to hear it is early in October, before the bell-birds begin to breed, and on a fine morning, after rain. Just as the sky is beginning to grow light, from the bush come a few tentative notes from a tui, followed by a full-throated volume of music from tuis on adjacent trees. The lovely liquid notes of the robin swell the chorus, and this is the signal for the bellbirds to chime in as a lead for the blackbirds, thrushes, whiteheads, tom- ' t its, and fantails, with the chattering notes of the parrakeets, to aid in the harmony. Once more the bellbirds, with rm'- ng notes, as though silver bells weiv ( aiming in every tree, carry the song till ail the bush seems throbb ng with glorious music each little chorister seemly endeavouring to rival its neighbour. For about half an hour this wonderful woodland orchestra continues its harmony and then the harsh, screeching call of the longtailed cuckoo, and the not unmusical call of the kaka, seem to act as a i eminder to the songsters that dawn has come and that the practical needs of life must be attended to.” Perhaps the Kapiti Sanctuary would offer too many difficulties to the Government for the recording of that ’ chorus, but the feat should be possible ■ in other localities where electric curlrent would be easily available for the I apparatus. Bird-lovers Puzzled. I A well-known citizen who lives at i Eastbourne—a regular bird-feeder — 'put this question to me the other day: i Why is it that birds such as sparrows I and blackbirds, this summer are much | more eager than usual for man-made meals? Generally, in the middle of summer, the food-dish is not much visited, as the birds seem to have plenty of natural food, but this year they almost haunt my house. Friends in the Hutt Valley and elsewhere have had the same experience. Are insects not so abundant as usual?” Well, what kind of summer have most places had up to January? Wellington has been thrashed by cold winds, which are not friendly to insects nor to flowers. 'The season here has not been favourable for birds nor insects. Unless the weather has a big improvement many of the birds will reach winter in very poor condition and will need treats from friendly men and women. | My friend remarked that he liked and admired the common sparrow which waged war on many pests of flowers, shrubs and trees. Often he I had seen the birds stripping green I aphis from the tender shoots of roses, I gobbling grubs from the foliage of • taupata and other trees, and doing ■other good deeds.