THE LAND BIRDS OF WESTLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 3 November 1921, Page 4

THE LAND BIRDS OF WESTLAND

(Written l>y tlie lute Mr Charles Dougins, the well-known explorer of the mountains of Westland.)

(Continued.) THE SCRUB HEN

What this bird is called or if it has a name I can’t say. It is about the size of it robin, and in plumage and general appearance it resembles a miniature iveha. Whether it can llv I don’t know. I never could tret one to try and never could catch one to examine it. They go wriggling about the desert scrub. A thick thorn hedge would just suit them if they could find one. Their cry is a plaintive sort of twittering unto. At first I thought it was a young bird that- had lost its mother, but on trying to catch one found out my mistake. It? could take very good can* of itself and I found it impossible to capture it by any known way, exce-it blowing it to pieces wit I• .Vo. .'I shot, so they vote always stile front me, and i. is the only li* : 1 couldn’t capture some way or other.

At the first of the Coast they were very rate. Vow they liitisl he either c iinet or nearly so, as I have not seen 0.-e for five end twenty years. Till*: NOTH I! VIS. This almi.-t extinct Itittl may possibly "ast in considerable numbers in the

,-'minds ami hack country of l.ako To Allan. If so. I think it will be localised in certain places like the roa. At itlti* time it rot doubt flourished all over csl Liitd ; that is if we are to believe the Maoris, hut it is almost impossible it can now lie in the csnnti.v. I have been all over Westland from one eml in the other and always with a good bush dog. and if the bird existed I could not possibly help finding it. Besides my-

self there have been surveyors, prospect. rs and cattle hunters also over the country anil mi trace of the bird has been found That singtilai drumming iioi-c heard at night ill Southern Westland is the kakapo courting cry. not .' c* itototn'r as sune people wished to believe.

The Maoris say it was a passbird found high up to tin* mountains. This I don't believe." It may no doubt, have mossed the ranges at times like its relative the swamp lien. Hut on ihc ranges is not where their natural haunts must In*. It is decidedly a swamp Hard like the pukeho. and il ever loiiild it will he in the lake or lag. on covered plateaus, which an* said In abound in some parts inland fioiii the Sounds. It is to l«* lio|>«d i: ;||.*;. ill exist im will find ihem. Si iciioc would soon exterminate them in tin* interests of museums. I have not :. oil a unto, ill I’M . |it ill il picture and don't know in who: Inmil; it l>.*hmg“, lla rails most likely, so I have biaolot e ! it h.*’t w cell till* uoka and sw amp hen. Till.’ i*IV I MU I I l,‘ V

tiii: s\v.\Mr iikn. Tliis is a ,viri iwauijiK to man, l»inl • r I. a.-l, mi* i<» attcmpl tun many accomplishments. .lack of all trades ami iii.-ist !‘i t I Hum* wo: lid well apply to this foolish I" iv-1. An amhition to cxctdl in id n; not liologica I gilts lias hccii it.* l uin and made the bird an object of t'ciisioll to die Icathcied cication. Il can llv, walk, dive and swim, blit can do none of tliem even tolerably well. It flies uillt a contorted jerky motion, ' ut otily lor a -Lori ilistaiice. alighting <n :i:iv 11 c ■ handy and staggering among the hinnohes as if inloxiealed. It walks as if troubled with mips, and in miming il often stumbles. When

swimming it looks like n domestic load tumbled in a water butt, and wanted sonic kind friend to rescue it. lu diving is still mine absurd. Putting mi the ait's of a gicbe it Inins its bead from side to side with a knowing look, tlicn goes down with a disunion d splutter of legs and wings, mining up at mice i. itli a jerk like a cork. Occasionally 1 have seen them perched on a 1 1 ci* st t etching tln*ii necks, and making a fearful noise which -bows piobahl; they an* going to add singing to then o' , r a"< omplisliliicnls. Besides being a J.** k of all trades, tins bird las a var.iiv of mimes, no two people being agreed as to wliioa i« 'lllicit. Some people call il tin* mole 1 ion I some laueied resemblaiu e to lla* water bell of tile Old Country. Swamp Ill'll it is generally called in Wesiland. but I Inin* lieu i'll it also railed bald pate a,id New Zealand tuikcv, the biller liana* the most absurd "1 all, as il Inis, not tin* slightest icseinhlnme to that bird, eilhet ill appearance inhabits.

The small (nit ol white feathers which swampy no doubt thinks i- a tail, lie is evidently very proud of. lic king it up and down mill iiiually when walking. When the hinl comes cut on an open spare walking like a man with light hoots, its little while tint liobliiiin; 111 > and down with a j"t'ky motion, its head and body mittiimaliv ho.ling and nodding, with the unlit s of a Kifilch dancing muster, the swamp hen forms a stiaugc appa i it ion. Like the weka Ibis bin! can In* snared but util so easily, and it wdl tame round a house especially il Here is a stable w itli cm n about, and it astonishes the domestic low Is with lis

clitics and impudence. The only thing they arc afraid of me hawks who catch (hem in the open or when Hying across from lice to tree. Swampy when lie secs a hawk makes either lor the water Ol the send), squealing all the tiiiu*. Dogs also catch them very easily. An experienced dog when lie -res a hen doesn't go hat king and howling, lie simply sits quietly down ; the lien gels tin'll waiting, comes down |o tin* ground and is nabbed at once. The swamp licit is tolerable eating and makes good stock lor soup and apjH'itrs to be one of tile few birds that increases with civilisation. In sonic parts of Otago and Soul Ilia ltd they were becoming a nuisance and a price was put on tlicii heads. A page back I was xx lit ill • ■ iiTcVeiilly about this bird’s flight. He really must at times llv with a sustained Might, as they can i ross the main range, hut many must perish on the journey as I have often found them dead on glaeici and snowfield.

DUCKS. TIIK I’A I! A DISK DUCK. History ait<l tradition atx- silent :is regards Urn origin of 11 1 i.s nnme. The hi,il is not particularly gorgeous in plumage :iml it’s voice is not angelical ill sweetness. They can neither ship; nor whistle, and their cry is only slightly superior to the music ol the happi|>es. The name may he a eon option from some unknown language

where it nitty .have hud ti meaning, ft! is called a duck, but it most decidedly belongs to the goose tribe. It lives on grass and oats when it can get them. Its cry is something like that of a goose, only it doen’t hiss, and they often join geese about a house, never ducks. Tf not shot at or otherwise disturbed, and there is a grass paddockhandy, they soon become comparatively tame. When their eggs are hatched under tt domestic fowl and the top pinion of one wing cut off, the young will grow It)) about a poultry yard like oilier domestic fowls, never leaving tbe place as they can’t fly. 1" ll, is they become fat and rite very good eating, but I Imve never heard whether they hieed in captivity. If shot at or otherwise disturbed the I’ara.lise duck soon becomes very wild and remarkably cute, keeping a sentiy like crows. It' is aggravating aftor paiufiilly crawling gun in hand, through wet grass and swamp making stive of a line pot* shot, to find that a confounded drake has had his eye on you all the lime. lie says krav /ample, the other birds reply and itll fly off with a cry, ton much like a laugh to h<* pleasant to the disappointed one. I consider it mean in the bird after you have crawled a iptarter of a mile in hopes of a shot to wait till you are almost within range. The wretch might have sung onTwltd! he saw you first ami so saved all the trouble.

\\ lien hatching the paradise is not pni-ticulai where it makes its nest as long as it is hidden, in among thick scrub near the water’s edge, ill a llax bush or often up a tree, they don’t mim! which. How the young get down limn the tree without being killed is a mystery, but they manage it some way. As the voting bird cannot llv lor mouths after they come out, the old ones develop wonderful intelligence ill protecting them from dogs and men. A man who lias never seen the dodge will lie walking along a river Mat when In* sees a poor wounded drake fluttering along the ground, lla! he says to himself. I'll have that bird for supper. Down goes his swag, and with a handful ~f stones he starts in pursuit, but somehow, however fast he runs that 1*j,,l always keeps the saute distance. 11 a stone is thrown it always hinds where the bird was. If that man stops |,i, h;oath or to think, the bird stops also and spreads its wings out as d in the agonies of deatb, stringing the man on I<Tmake another da.-’.i. but always with the same result. At last when he has gone a mile oi so the thick comes along. She had been planting the voting ones and coltics to tell him its all right, lie gets up with nothing I lie ma t ter vv it li him and both fly away with a derisive laugh, leaving lla* man to curse bis stupidity and to woiulet if he will find his swag again. I don’t suppose a in*m would he taken in twice with the dodge, but most dogs never scent to tumble to it, but keep aftei the bird pill t iii-* on t<*i rilie spin Is in Ihe lr,nil hope ol Ia I chill” it .

As tin* young of llic paradise ducks arc lull Hedged and gvow n beloie they can llv. they arc easily caught. Almost any dog w ili do so, and w hen in the wtthi ids can lie ill iven ashore in icons, tin* dogs being ready to receive them.' .lust hct'nic they can My is the time. Tin* voting ones aic good to eat ; il.i-v an* t iii'ii lat and lender. THE <; i: A V PUCK.

Unlike must No iv Zealand birds this duck is shy by nature. I’nfbably he knows he is good to eat, slttifed mid roasted. Consequently lie always sleeps w lib oil.* eye open. It brings nine to ten voting into the world, hut scltlutu icais mine than two ol three, eels being tin* cause. It is quite a common occurrence to find a duck with only one leg. An cel got till* other mid 1 have olleii found young birds inside tbe fish. Tl,,* giay duck tries to protect its \ tiling w lii’ii on land by using the same dodge as the paradise, but not so successfully as the xottlig generally Dike to tlie water wluue the enemy really is. This liiial and the' black swan arc 1 1. nitlv two I know xvlio coinci t llieinselves into what might be called an ornot liologica I perambulator. They til'' nit,. n |,, 1,,, seen swimming xvilli sum* ol the young on their hacks. It is 1-aihcr a pretty sight, and I have olteu xi ond<*ii*d if any human being would shunt them XX hill* so employed.

As the gray duck is a s|,y hinl and iocs very quickly, it affords more of wliat is called a sport than any otli«r in i In* count I y except a quail. A home country sporsl.man would have a lit it he saw the deli he ato pot ting in West laud. Imagine having to throw stones at a bird so as to get it lat' enough away |o lire without blowing It In pieces, or on point ing a g" 11 nl :l (~ sec the amlaciiotts bird coolly kind on the muzzle and xel! dctimioo. (To be continued).