Art. XXXII.—On the Ornithology of New Zealand.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 9, 1876, Page 327

Art. XXXII.—On the Ornithology of New Zealand. By Walter L. Buller, C.M.G., Sc.D., President. Plate. [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 16th September, 1876.] In continuation of my paper under the above title in last yea r's volume of “Transactions,” I beg to lay before the Society some further notes and observations, adopting, for convenience, the nomenclature used in my “Birds of New Zealand.” Circus gouldi. This fine Hawk is becoming perceptibly scarcer in many parts of the country, owing to its wholesale destruction by farmers. On a recent occasion I counted no less than ninety-six heads nailed up in imposing rows against the wall of an outhouse on a small sheep station. This crusade arises from the popular belief that the Harrier attacks and kills young lambs. That it occasionally does so in the case of weaklings is beyond doubt, but I am of opinion that the mischief done is very much exaggerated, and that

the wholesale killing of Hawks in a country like this is a questionable policy, from a utilitarian point of view, as it tends to disturb the balance of nature, and to interfere with the general conditions of animal life, already too much disturbed by the operations of Acclimatization Societies. The rapacious birds have an important part to perform in the economy of nature; and species, like the present, which are partly insectivorous, are too valuable to the practical agriculturist, to be destroyed with impunity, although they may occasionally attack a sickly lamb in the flock, or swoop on a young turkey. Mr. C. H. Robson, of Cape Campbell, sends me the following interesting note:—“In the spring of 1873, I observed a very large female Hawk of a brighter colour than usual, with very distinct markings, and presenting quite a yellow appearance as compared with the ordinary hawk. She rose, the first time I saw her, out of a piece of swampy ground near the beach, and, on a subsequent occasion, finding her in the same place, I hunted about and found her nest in a tussock, with two white eggs in it. Being anxious to secure the young birds, I did not handle the eggs, but visited the nest every week, each time coming quite close to the bird. In due time one of the eggs hatched out a little yellow-white chick, but a few days later, to my great regret, it was taken, I presume, by a rat. On flying off the nest the Hawk was joined by the male bird, not nearly so large as herself, and always too high in the air for me to observe his plumage.” Sceloglaux albifacies. A specimen of this large Owl lately received at the Canterbury Museum, and forwarded to Europe by Dr. Haast, is sufficiently white about the face to justify the specific name bestowed by Mr. G. R. Gray. In ordinary examples, however, this is quite a subordinate feature. Nestor meridionalis. Of this species Captain Mair writes:—“In June last I was at Tuhua in the upper Wanganui. I found the Kakas there so fat that they could not fly. I actually caught fifteen of them on the ground, as they were unable to take wing. Halcyon vagans. On the feeding habits of this species, Mr. Henry C. Field of Wanganui has sent me the following interesting observations, which exhibit the Kingfisher in the new character of a frugivorous bird:— “Knowing the interest you take in our New Zealand birds, I have thought you might like to be informed of the following trait in the habits of the Kotare, which I think is not generally known. About a week before Christmas my children to me that in which they took to be a rat's hole in the pumice bank of the stream, just behind my garden, there

was something which growled at them whenever they passed the hole or looked into it. On the matter being mentioned a second or third time the hole was examined, and proved to be a Kotare's nest, containing four young ones about half-fledged. The old birds, of course, manifested a strong objection to the next being touched, flying round, screaming, and darting at us whenever we went close to it. I desired the children not to meddle with the young birds, but told them that if they sat a little way off and watched they would see the old ones catch fish, lizards, and insects, and bring them to the nest for the young ones to eat. The children were very pleased to do this, but quickly discovered that very few fish, and apparently very little animal food of any kind was brought to the nest, and that the young brood were being reared on the cherries out of our garden. I at first thought the children were mistaken, but as they assured me they saw the birds fly to the trees, and bring back the cherries in their bills, I examined the nest, and from the quantity of cherry stones that it contained saw that the youngsters' eyes had not deceived them. It was evident, in fact, that up to the time they left the nest, fruit formed the chief food of the young birds. It has occurred to me that possibly the Kingfisher, from its habits, consumes a large quantity of fluid with its food, and that the juice of the fruit supplies moisture necessary to the proper growth of the young birds. At all events it is clear that young fruit forms an important article in their diet, though I never saw them, eating it, or heard of their doing so at a later stage of their existence.” “Postscript, June 25.—I accidentally got corroborative information as to the frugivorous habits of the Kotare lately. I met Mr. Enderby, who mentioned that he had been greatly annoyed by these birds this autumn. He said that scarcely a peach in the garden escaped having one or more large pieces pecked out of them, and that the birds did not meddle with the ripe fruit, but attacked it when it was just ripening, and before it became soft. This seems to indicate that, as in my case, the fruit was wanted not for the consumption of the old birds themselves, but as food for their young, and that it was taken therefore before it was too soft to be carried in the bill, or not required after the fruit was ripe, because the young birds were then fledged. Mr. Enderby was quite positive that it was the Kotares and not sparrows who were the depredators, as he saw them taking the fruit, and said he at first had a great mind to shoot them, till he noticed that they evidently carried it away to their nests.” Anthornis melanura. I may mention, in proof of my former assertion that the Korimako, once the commonest bird of the country, is fast becoming extinct, that since my return from England two years ago I have positively not seen one, although

I have visited many parts of the North Island. Even in the South Island, where Captain Hutton states it is still abundant, I had lately to pay six-and-eight pence for a pair of them! Rhipidura fuliginosa. In my “Birds of New Zealand” (p. 146) I mentioned a single instance of the occurrence of this South Island species on the northern side of Cook Strait, in the winter of 1864. Another specimen was killed about two years ago near a streamlet in the Pirongia Ranges, Waikato; and I have now to exhibit to this meeting the skin of a third obtained by my son in a shrubbery near Wellington on the 2nd April last. I may add, further, that a pair of these black fantails visited my garden on Wellington Terrace on the 15th of the same month, and, as I would not allow them to be molested, returned on several successive days. They disappeared together, and I have not seen them since; but it is to be hoped that they will breed with us this season, and that this pretty bird may become at length fairly acclimatized in this island. Ocydromus earli. It is a notorious fact that this species, notwithstanding its feebly developed wings, rendering it quite incapable of flight, is getting every year more plentiful in the settled districts of the North Island. The reason is doubtless to be found in the fact that while its natural enemies, hawks and wild cats, diminish with the progress of settlement, the cultivation of the country increases its advantages in the every-day struggle for existence. The nocturnal cry of the Woodhen is now quite familiar in districts where a few years ago it was quite unknown. On the synonymy of this species Captain Hutton sends me the following:— “I am sure that you are right about the identification of Ocydromus earli. I always agreed with you, and I don't understand how Finsch thinks otherwise. I think the following is about right:— “1. O. earli, Gray; ‘Ibis,’ 1862, p. 26; also, O. australis, Gray, ibid in part; Buller, ‘Birds of New Zealand.’ Whether or not it is the Rallus rufus of Ellman I have no means of judging. “2. O. fuscus, Dubus; R. troglodytes, Forster, ‘Descr. An.’ p. 110; R. fuscus, Ellman?; Buller, ‘Birds of New Zealand.’ “3. O. australis, Sparr.; Gray, in ‘Voyage, “Erebus and Terror” (young only); Buller, ‘Birds of New Zealand,’ in part (not the figure). “4. O. troglodytes, Gml.; O. australis, Gray, ‘Voyage, “Erebus and Terror” (adult); and Buller, ‘Birds of New Zealand,’ in part, with figure. “I doubt O. brachypterus, Lafr., being a synonym of either of these. Finsch thinks it is the same as O. hectori, mihi., which is very probable. I

have had two specimens of O. fuscus sent to me from the Waiau district, on the eastern side of the alps—the region of O. finschi, mihi., so I now think that O. finschi is probably only the young of O. fuscus.” Apterix mantelli. I have already placed on record my own views as to the specific value of the North Island Kiwi, as compared with Apteryx australis of the South Island, and I have seen no reason since the publication of my work to change or modify them, It is desirable, however, to have the arguments on both sides stated fully, and I have therefore taken the trouble to translate from the German Dr. Finsch's last published remarks on this subject in the “Journal für Ornithologie,” from which it will be seen that this naturalist is still opposed to the recognition of A. mantelli:— “As hitherto, I have had no opportunity of examining any reliable specimens from the North Island—it naturally was not possible for me to make sure about the value of those characters. I am indebted now to the kindness of Dr. Buller for two specimens from the North Island, so that I am able to make a direct comparison of specimens from both islands. Besides the two specimens from the North Island, ‘I have four old birds (two male and two female), and a young one from the South Island before me; also, an old one and a half-grown bird, without any definite locality, consequently a total of nine specimens in different stages and conditions of age and sex. To refer, in the first place, to the tinge of colour. I had before this, opportunities of observing that in specimens from the South Island the colour is by no means constant, but on the contrary varies from greyish-brown to rusty-red brown. The latter tone of colour, as is well known, is produced by the terminal third-part of the feathers being of that shade. Each individual feather is coloured either dark brownish-grey or brown, changing gradually towards the tip into rusty brown; the single flaments or barbs of the feathers, which stand far apart from each other, terminate, however, in black hair-like tips, which impact to the whole plumage the peculiar bristle-like character. In this fundamental point of colouring the specimens from both islands absolutely agree, and the feathers which I have before me, and which have been carefully pulled out, do not betrary differences of any kind. Only, as I have already said, the intensity of the rust-brown on the third part of the tip of each feather is sometimes stronger, sometimes feebler, and on this depends the general colouring of the specimen. One specimen from the North Island sows the same darker, and of a more vivid rust-brown than examples from the South Island. It does not, however, appear quite so dark as a specimen in the Bremen collection, without a positively defined locality, of which I have already

made mention. The other specimen from the North Island, however, so perfectly agrees in regard to the rust-brown tone of colour, with specimens from the South Island, that in point of fact not the slightest difference is observable. Consequently the tinge or colouring as a specific character must be considered as absolutely worthless. The case is different, however, in regard to the relative hardness or softness of the plumage, which is perceptible to the touch. I am in a position to confirm the statement that in general the specimens from the North Island possess more strongly developed feather shafts, which project beyond the barbs in the shape of naked tips, and consequently appear more like bristles and have a harsher feel. This peculiarity is very perceptible on stroking the feather the wrong way, or on carefully feeling them; but cannot be distinguished on stroking with the palm of the hand along, or in the direction of the feathers. If stroked in this way even the most delicately sensitive hand would be unable to detect any difference at all between certain specimens from the North and South Islands respectively. It is worth mentioning here that on patting the plumage of Apteryx oweni (in the manner described) the same difference as compared with Apteryx australis becomes at once apparent. What has been said in regard to the relative hardness or softness due to the more or less pronounced development of the projecting naked shaft-tips, which differ again in Apteryx oweni, has reference moreover to the plumage of the upper side of the rump. With that which covers the hindhead and neck the case is different; and here perhaps might be found a single criterion, or distinguishing mark, which is appreciable not merely to the touch but also to the eye, and which might be considered as a sufficient specific character for the North Island Apteryx. The feathers of the back of the head and the back of the neck have stronger and more projecting shafts, with the barbs composing the webs further apart and consequently less numerous. These hair-like barbs not only feel harder to the touch, but the longer and protruding hair-like filaments are quite apparent to the eye. This peculiarity I find borne out in all the specimens before me. If therefore one intends to acknowledge the Apteryx of the North Island as a distinct species, a distinguishing character could only be found in this visible difference of plumage on the hind-head and back of neck. On the front and sides of the neck the peculiarity I have described is scarcely perceptible, Still, I do not venture as yet to set up this character as a constant one, as possibly there may be exceptions. Besides this character alone does not appear to me of sufficient importance to differentiate a species. In my judgment therefore, for the present, this Apteryx of the North Island is only a slightly deviating form of the known Apteryx australis. I doubt whether it will be possible to define with certainty specimens, the origin of which is not warranted, without direct comparison in all cases.”

Numenius cyanopus. Dr. von Haast writes to me that two specimens of a Whimbrel, which he refers to this species, have recently been added to the New Zealand collection in the Canterbury Museum. One of these was obtained on the 2nd of April last on the Kaiapoi Bar, where it was consorting with a flock of Godwits; and the other was shot on the 27th June, at the mouth of the Ashley River. Both of these proved on examination to be males. The breeding-ground of this species has not yet been discovered, but the bird is very abundant on the shores of Tasmania, and there is reason to believe that it retires to the high lands of the interior for the purpose of reproducing. Its range extends, however, all over Australia, and it is just one of those species that might reasonably be looked for as stragglers on our coasts. It will be remembered that in the course of a paper which I read before this Society in February, 1875, describing several ornithological novelties in the Colonial Museum, I mentioned, on the authority of Dr. Hector (through whose hands the specimens had passed) that an example of this species was shot by Liardet in the Wairau district. Curiously enough, the bird was in company with another straggler from Australia, Numenius uropygialis, a notice of which will be found in the paper referred to.* “Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” Vol. VII., p. 225. Himantopus leucocephalus. The following is the description of a young bird of this species shot by my son on a mud-bank in the Wanganui River on the 25th March:—Crown of the head, nape, and hind-neck dusky black mottled with white; shoulders spotted with black, darkening towards the back; upper part of back and scapulars brownish-black; upper surface of wings glossy black; the median coverts, as well as the feathers of the back, narrowly tipped with brown; lower part of back and rump white; tail feathers dull black, tipped wit brown, their coverts (which are very fluffy) plumbeous at the base, white in their apical portion, and tipped with yellowish-brown: lining of wings black; bill black, brownish towards the base; irides reddish-yellow; legs pale yellow; the claws brown; upper mandible, 2 inches; tibia, 1.75; tarsus, 2.75. Tringa canutus. A beautiful specimen of this bird in full summer plumage, shot in the vicinity of Christchurch on the 2nd April, and preserved in that Museum, presents the following measurements:—Extreme length, 9 inches; wing from flexure, 6.4 inches; tail, 2.25 inches; bill, along the ridge, 1.15 inches, along the edge of lower mandible, 1.15 inches; bare tibia, .55 inch; tarsus, 1.15 inches; middle toe and claw, 1.15 inches; hallux, .25 inch.

Anous stolidus. Dr. Finsch and myself concurred in omitting the Noddy Tern from the New Zealand list, in the absence of more positive evidence of its occurrence in our seas. I think it is probable, however, that we shall have in the end to restore it. There is a specimen in the Canterterbury Museum, shot by Mr. Minerzhagen, near the Sandwich Islands. The forehead and vertex in a line with the eyes is white, passing into grey on the crown, and shading into the sooty colour which prevails all over the body; quills and tail-feathers black. Procellaria cookii. I am indebted to Mr. C. H. Robson for a very perfect specimen of this Petrel obtained by him at Cape Gampbell. Thalassidroma nereis. I have lately received several fine specimens of this diminutive Petrel from Cape Campbell. Diomedea exulans. In a paper which I had the honour of reading before this Society in January last, I described a perfectly mature example of the Wandering Albatros, presenting a feature which appeared to me quite a new fact in natural history. It has since been noticed by Dr. Kidder * “Birds of Kerguelen Island,” p. 20. in the following terms:—“All of the nesting Albatroses that I saw, without exception, showed a slight pinkish discolouration of the neck, as if a blood-stain had been washed out (usually on the left side), and extending downward from the region of the ear.” I find, however, that I was not the first to record this peculiarity of colouration. Captain Hutton, in his “Notes on the Petrels of the Southern Ocean, †“Read before Natural History Society of Dublin, March 3rd, 1865. mentions “a rose-coloured streak on each side of the neck,” and adds, “I have never seen this on either the young or very old birds; and the only one I ever captured with it was a male. I have also only seen these marks between June and August, and I am therefore disposed to believe that they distinguish the middle-aged male bird previous to the breeding season; but I am not sure of this.” Mr. Hood, a Wharekauri settler, informs me that the Chatham Island Natives periodically visit two groups of small islands—the Sisters and the Forty, for the purpose of collecting young birds. In August last year, he saw the boats return with seven hundred young Albatroses. The Natives had caught them on the nest and wrung their necks. After this they were tried down in their own fat and potted for future use.

Diomedea cauta. Captain Hutton writes me that he has added this fine Albatros to the New Zealand list, a specimen having been obtained at Blueskin Bay, in Otago. In 1871, I saw a beautiful specimen on board of a man-of-war in Wellington Harbour, but I found that it had been captured too far from the shores of New Zealand to warrant my including the species in my book. Mr. Gould named it the Shy Albatros, in allusion to its cautious habits, for it seldom approached the ship sufficiently near for a successful shot. He states that it is “rapid and vigorous on the wing, and takes immense sweeps over the surface of the ocean.” The stomachs of those he obtained in Recherche Bay (Tasmania), where they were attacted by the floating fat and other refuse from the whaling-station, contained blubber, the remains of large fish, barnacles, and other crustaceans. The New Zealand Avifauna now embraces six recognized species of Albatros, viz.—Diomedea exulans, D. melanophrys, D. chlororhyncha, D. culminata, D. fuliginosa, and D. cauta. Phalacrocrax carunculatus. Some specimens of this fine species have lately been brought from Queen Charlotte Sound, and the skins manufactured into ladies' muffs by Mr. Liardet, of Wellington. The bird which I exhibited at one of our former meetings, and which I proposed to distinguish as Phalacrocorax finschii, if it should prove to be new is, I rather suspect, only a seasonal state of this species. In Dr. Kidder's work* “Contributions to the Natural History of Kerguelen Island,” Bulletin of the U.S. National Museum, 1875. there is the following significant mention of this Shag:—“Only a single adult skin of this Cormorant was preserved and brought home, a female in nuptial plumage. There is no better reason, I am afraid, for this omission, than the fact, that the birds were exceedingly plentiful, and the preparation of the skins a very tedious job, so that it was put off from day to day for rarer specimens, until, in the haste of an unexpectedly hurried departure, it was omitted altogether. From memory, I can only say that the young birds were of much more sober plumage than the females, destitute of the crest and brilliant blue eyelid, and generally rather smaller. All had white breasts and bellies; but there were many minor variations in plumage, which I suppose went to indicate differences in age.” I do not absolutely sink the new species, because, in Mr. Travers' specimens, the bill is appreciably larger and more robust than in ordinary examples of P. carunculatus; but it will be necessary to obtain further specimens for examination and comparison before any satisfactory conclusion can be arrived at.

On the habits of P. carunculatus, as observed on Kerguelen Island, Dr. Kidder gives the following particulars:—“They do not differ materially in habits from other species of Cormorant, diving and swimming well, feeding entirely on fish, and often congregating for hours upon a projecting rock or headland, where, in pairing time, they enact various absurd performances, billing and curvetting about one another in a very ridiculous manner. The note is a hoarse croak, which never varies, so far as I have observed. They seem to be on particularly good terms with the Chionis, and are often joined by gulls when sunning themselves. They build upon shelves, for the most part in the precipitous faces of cliffs overlooking the water; the base of the nest being raised sometimes as much as two feet, and composed of mingled mud and excrement. Upon this pedestal is constructed a rather artistic nest of long blades of grass. Apparently, they continue to use the old nests year after year, adding a new layer each season, and thus building the nest up. The first eggs were found November 5th; there being sometimes two and sometimes three in a nest. They were procured at first by the kind assistance of Mr. Stanley, and a length of rope which tied us together, one end being knotted round the waist of each. One would then remain above and hold on, while the other clambered a little way down the face of the cliff and secured the eggs. After a time, however, I discovered a lot of nests, near a rookery of Rock-hopper Penguins, accessible from below, where, on December 4th, the young birds were first observed. Eggs, green, with white chalky incrustation. The young are most ridiculous-looking objects, being pot-bellied, naked, and perfectly black, and seem to be less advanced in development at the time of hatching than most birds, the bones of the tarsus and foot being not yet ossified. Small fish were generally lying by the nests. The old birds were very solicitous about their young, hissing and stretching out their necks, and refusing to leave their nests until pushed off. Yet, when I took one of the young away from the nest, and placed it close by on the rock, the mother seemed neither to recognize its constant chirping nor to be aware that one of her brood was missing. Certainly she paid no attention to it. The odour in the neighbourhood of the nesting-places was most offensive. The young birds are infested with a tick of prodigious size,” Phalacrocorax finschii. Under this name Mr. R. B. Sharpe has distinguished from P. brevirostris a specimen in the British Museum, having a white spot on the wing coverts. Mr. W. T. L. Travers, who has just returned from the Hot Springs, informs me that, in Lake Tarawera, he observed a small Shag, differing apparently from P. brevirostris, being of inferior size and marked with white on the wings. He was unable to obtain a very close inspection, but it seems not unlikely that this is the bird described by Mr. Sharpe.

Eudyptula undina. In further illustration of my view that this bird is specifically distinct from Eudyptula minor, I beg to submit sketches of the bill (Figs. 3 and 4, Plate) shewing the relative size. These sketches are from specimens in the Colonial Museum.