Section for Juniors Miriam Ballard Memorial Essay Competition

Forest and Bird, Issue 104, 1 May 1952, Page 14

Section for Juniors Miriam Ballard Memorial Essay Competition

PRIZE-WINNERS, 1952

First Prize: JUDITH L. CHAPMAN, age 13, 159 Princes St., Invercargill. Southland Girls’ High School.

Second Prize: JUDITH H. KNIGHT, age 14, 11 King George Ave., Epsom, Auckland. Epsom Girls’ Grammar School.

The First Prize Essay is printed below.

NEW ZEALAND’S SMALLEST NATIVE BIRD

TT was a hot, sunny day, and as I walked slowly up the steep bush-covered hill, despondently wondering what to do, there came to me the sound of an unknown bird-call. It was a faint “zee zee”. I stood for a moment wondering whether to follow it up or to go for a walk over the hills. It may be as well to add that I was in hilly, manuka country in South Otago. After a few moments’ hesitation, curiosity, or perhaps laziness overcame all my desire for a walk, so making as little noise as possible I crept over to the matagouri trees from whence the noise came. There, fluttering about from branch to branch, were a mother and father rifleman. They were very tiny with only a tuft of feathers for a tail. One of the birds was coloured olive yellowdown the back and on the rump, and white on the under parts. I later discovered that this was the male bird. The male also had a patch of dull green on the upper part of his body. The female was distinguished from the male by olive green upper parts and huffy white under parts. Both birds had dark brown bills, pale brown legs, and streaks of yellow on their sides. I. lay there watching them for an hour until a

call from the house reminded me that it was tea time. As I lay there I noticed that as the birds uttered their faint cry of “zee zee” their wings quivered very slightly. Their flight was very feeble but their movements were quite sprightly, and they were incessantly on the move.

They flew from branch to branch, ascended the tree spirally, and then descended it in one swift downward flight. Every fifteen minutes or so they would fly on to the next tree and repeat this performance. Although the slope was mainly covered in manuka trees the birds always chose one of the matagouri trees which were dotted here and there among the manuka. During the hour in which I lay watching them the birds did not eat a thing, nor did they appear to be searching for food.

For the next three days I went up the hill at the same time and lay watching the birds. They were always on the same section of the hillside and they always acted in the same manner. On the fourth day when I went up the birds were nowhere to be seen, and although I searched the hillside thoroughly during the next three days I did not see those birds again.—JUDITH L. CHAPMAN.