The Maligned Pukeko

Forest and Bird, Issue 104, 1 May 1952, Page 7

The Maligned Pukeko

By

W. M. FRASER

ON the coast of Whangarei District I have a farm used for dairying, and having saved a number of stands of native bush, the area is regarded as a bird sanctuary. My wife and I, living in town, have a bach on the farm where our week-ends are sometimes spent. On my way to the shed for milk one morning, I crossed a field over which scattered titree had been cut down, and from under a fallen head of this scrub I saw a hen pheasant run out and fly, and there I found a nest with six pheasant eggs. The following week-end when passing the same place, I was surprised on seeing a handsome pukeko stalking away from the pheasant’s nest, but the greater surprise was to find the pheasant eggs, seven by this time, quite intact and lying together with five lovely pukeko eggs beautifully patterned with dark reddish and grey splotches. Now here was something the complexity of which set one’s mind wondering to which bird the privilege and pride of leading the chicks from the nest would fall and whether the young would survive if foster-mothered by the wrong

parent. Fate decreed, however, that the experiment would not be tried, as on the following weekend upon anxiously approaching this sequestered spot, I saw that the titree bush which had sheltered the nest had been moved some feet by wind or browsing stock and egg shells were scattered about, showing that the fresh eggs of both birds had been eaten, presumably by hawk or stoat.

Notwithstanding the tragedy that overtook this interesting partnership, here was some proof that this pukeko not only showed no inclination to eat other birds’ eggs, but in this case actually shared in the protection of a strange nest to the extent of laying its own eggs therein.

Among the allegations that keep cropping up of the thieving and destructive habits of certain of our native birds, the usual case laid against the pukeko is the eating of other birds’ eggs. In defence of the pukeko on this charge and as an occurrence of interest, I make this record.