NATURE—AND MAN.

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19545, 6 April 1935, Page 4

NATURE—AND MAN.

LESSONS IN BIRD LIFE. “SIIOO" THE ZOO. (By Leo Fanning). A well-known lover of Birds, Mr H. -Guthrle-Smith, has placed on permanent record his many observations of the habits of numerous species, particularly during the nesting period. Here is one of his chronicles, from “Mutton Birds arid Other Birds" (seen in ami about Stewart Island) “The female tit is much moro cautious In approaching the nest than Ihe male, who will have fed the chicks, regardless of man’s presence, lor an hour perhaps before tho hen can make up her mind to follow his example. "Ono particularly careful hen I remember, which, although fluttering up and down and round about, with provender in her bill, could not make up her mind actually before me to alight on her nest. This precaution was taken on her nestlings’ account,

not on her own, for often isho herself had been very near to me and to my camera. Although she must liavo noticed her mate bringing in supplies, she trusted him, and no doubt believed- that in some way I was hoodwinked by bis manoeuvres, and Unit the secret of tho chicks was not in any way betrayed. The sexes dilfered only in their estimate of the quality of my intelligence, the cock who fed the chicks thinking I was a bigger fool than I looked and the hen, who abstained, believing I looked a bigger fool Ilian 1 was. “Perhaps it is not easy, to fully appreciate the anguish of tho mother, voluntarily debarred by love of the chicks, from love’s first charge, the ministering to their needs; and 1 have sometimes thought it may have been tiiis extremity of tenderness and pain that wrung from her the lit lie stuttering song, the first singing 1 had ever heard from a female lit of cither breed. She sang, and once again sang, as she passed over them, as if imploring pardon for apparent coldness and neglect, and entreating their love and forgiveness.” Natural Homos —Not Prisons. One of New Zealand's leading nature-lovers has put la a protest

j against the placing of native birds in aviaries, in or o.ut of zoos. “Perhaps tho most attractive and most humane ! method of exhibiting some of the ' native birds is to establish sanctuaries, j with lakes and ponds and plantations ! of native trees close to the centres of population and at tourist resorts and spas,” lie writes. “At Rotorua native wild fowl arc to he seen on the ponds in the garden-3. But more ! needs to be done there in the way of i planting trees on which the honeyj eating and berry-eating birds exist, i Native trees, and some, of the Aus- ! Ira linn gums, alone should be plantedI The Pin us Jnsignis plantations are only i a cumbering of the ground in a New I Zealand park; they provide no food ! for the birds. More sanctuaries, largo j amt small, but no imprisonment for ! the birds. They should bo free to come and go, as free as Ihe winds. I If they were given the food supplies ! I hey need, and if Iheir ground and I Iree-prowling enemies were cxlcnni- | naliil. limy would reward (licit - friends j with Iheir tameness and confidence, i That would he far belter than fenced i and caged aviaries.” Wise Conservation In pleasant contrast with Ihe recent agitation for Uk> -*l4lOlllll of, W'ashI dyke Lagocf 1 ’■’tany

waterfowl, a few miles from Timaru—come reports- of progress with a new conservation policy in the United States of America. “The heritage of Ihe birds is to be given back to them,” slates one commentator. “Seventeen great areas once bright with the multitudinous flocks and loud with their conversation —areas that were mistakenly drained in so-called development projects—arc to be flooded again. This policy should prove to he more than a reprieve. Its soundness and magnanimity should he made permanent. Like a rescue in melodrama, it.comes in the hazardous nick of lime. Though Its olemency and justice are for all waterfowl, it will concern —because of their superior numbers and grcaLer variety —the wild ducks.” 'this policy will also be “good business” from the so-called “prac-; lieal man’s” viewpoint, it was found j Unit ihe draining of some large areas, of swamp and lagoon -reduced, tho J moisture level of Ihe soil in adjacent 1 farming country, and thus seriously lessened flic productivity of much of] the land. j Early Arrival of Whlto-eyo3. This autumn white-eyes are fossicking for grubs and blights in gardens

■ I of Kelburn, Wellington, a month ■ 1 earlier than usual, in previous years they have, not flown in before the '. beginning of April, hut this year they i began their insect-hunting ut the end 1 of February. Why? The probable reason is that those birds are the broods of the past nesting season, I with their parents. During the past : two years —particularly since last ' winter—numbers of these lovable : little birds have chosen to make their homes in and about Kelburn, where trees have supplied suitable shelter and food. Similarly bellbirds and tuis i have responded lo man's planting j activities in various districts of New Zealand. White-eyos’ Wide Range. The white-eye, which came to New Zealand from Australia about 80 years ago, is -one of the most widely distributed birds of the Southern Ilcmisphsre. liven on lonely isles of the | stormy southern ocean it. makes a living. On bleak Campbell Island this friendly little chap greets the stranger. As far back as 18SS Andreas Reischek saw white-eyes on that, lonely outlier of New Zealand. “The only land bird I came across was the blightbird (white-eye'), which is common everywhere.” he wrote in his "Yesterdays in Maoriland.” "When the Australian frigate Saida was nearly

500 miles from Auckland Isles (which are about IG4 miles from Campbell) a swarm of these little birds came on board. A. friend of mine, FlagLieutenant Ritter von Wolf, wrote to tell me they were sitting in the rigging, and that several were caught.” A Case of Co-operation. A Note by Mr Guthi-Je-Smith — “Friendly relations exist between flie ilsherfolk of the island (in a bay of Stewart. Island) and the gull tribe, for some kinds help him i to locate the shoals of cod, while others devour the entrails, Hung overboard, of the cleaned ttsh. Soon there were three or four mollyliuwks about the boat, .close together, and often within 24 Inches or less of our hands. Amongst these birds there was no bickering; somehow the impression was conveyed that they were too big for the indignities of crowding and jostling, it was delightful to see them, grave and sedate, watching steadfastly, although without undue elation or eagerness, for the ‘Chinaman’ or ‘kelp Ash’, theirs by right and custom, as the birds well knew. Whenever one of these was hauled up, the birds would glide eagerly forward, the propulsion raising on . their breasts a little wall of water. A blue cod’s'

capture left them unmoved, with equal surety they knew that was the man’s share of the catch.”

Auckland Herald recently published on extract, from an issue of fifty years ago dealing with the local industries of that lime and concluding with the words: “We arc beginning also to grow tobacco.” Apropos of that an old Auckland identity .well remembers the early attempts to produce smokeable tobacco in New Zealand, including both “plug” and "uit-up.” The former, he says, was so moist and soft you could bend a thick- plug double with the fingers, while the cut-up was “also very crude and lacking in flavour.” °ince those distant days the industry has gone ahead by leaps and hounds, and our famous loslcd brands are as far superior to the original ones as smart laildr-rnade suits are superior to ciieap “ slops,” with the result that “toasted” Is now in universal demand. And no wonder, for owing to the comparative absence of nicotine in it, it is quite harmless while the quality is equal to the best imported. Five brands only of this incomparable tobacep: Navy Cut No. 3 (Bulldog), Cut Plug No. 10 (Bullshead), Cavendish, Riverhead Gold and Desert Gold. 469