THE LAND BIRDS OF WESTLAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 November 1921, Page 4

THE LAND BIRDS OF WESTLAND.

(Written by tbc Into Mr Charles Douglas, the well-known explorer of the mountains of Westland.) (Continued.) GEESE. Tile goose if lie would only spread over the country like the black swan, would he a far more useful bird, hut spread he won’t, and if left in a place where he has no human being to hiss at, he appears in die out. 1 have tried two or three times to make them go wild, hut without siieccss. The first attempt was carrying a couple to the grass line and leaving them on a mountain lake three thousand feet up. 'When 1 got home the same day the two were there before me and hissing and cackling for their supper. The next attempt was into what looked like a verv paradise for geese. It was on a large lake six miles in the heart of the hush. Still I had no success. The two birds must have had the homing instinct of a pigeon, for three days alter I was awakened by the two wanting •breakfast. When 1 left the place for good n lot of geese were left held ml. hut thov never bred and filially died out from some natural cause as wlicie they were left they had no enemies. Perhaps geese that have been domesticated for ages will not go wild. 1 tried tame ducks, hut the result was the >;tme. Why not import the wild goose who travels so regularly to the Arctic seas. They could easily he caught in Southern Europe, or where ever they winter. If a few were introduced into New Zealand 1 believe they would thrive and become permanent residents, as they wouldn't My to the Antarctic. There is no feed there, and ! don’t think they could cross the tropics to gain the Arctic, and the difference of seasons would no doubt confuse them, so they would remain in the country.

It is rather strange that both tame geese and ducks that have the run ot it large lake or lagoon, become before long uneatable. Even their eggs a;" fishy. Vet the native ducks in the same place are always good to eat. H is very seldom even a blue duck tastes -lightly fishy and their eggs never. I*l u- reason I >upj-o-o is the native birds eat grass, needs ami insects, very sel--1 0 111 fis.il. The tame duck is < :i ■ ni\er.ia- it he can get a chance, and is not •;oing to burst himself with water reuses whi'ii white! ait and young gray'iug are to he shoveled til* wholesale.

THE Til R O'! I Oi; MAVIS. This bird thrives well and is seaLter,l all over the eountiy. It is nnloitli!ediv the king ol song birds when .lie nightingale is not about, and can he heard morning and evening, and I eheve it is actually teaching some ol ;,e native lords to alter their notes ,|.| ;;o in lor a Idgl" ! <la - oi mu n

o .line ill llil l • t lie 1 'll and ••veil t lie 1,-aha have learned some new Mutes limn hat other bird I can't say, hilt it i.list probable the mavis is the one, as .* is more prolonged and varied in his notes and sings for bouts at a time, e are no doubt, a number ol New ■and birds whose voices want cultivating. notably the tui, crow and eun- ;• Iv. Could the nightingale not lie preail: d on to live out here. Wlrat a splendid miisie tom iiei lie would make. The ordinary e,.ge e.ui.u'y is an example of what development can do. to his native sta'e lie had no more oog than a sparro.. and was in iginally kept in cages !';•• its beauty. Even lint has been del eloped. hut careful miring ami eim-iug .|evlo|Hil Us ioity and il I crump hereditary. I am lioliever in tl e idea that the nightingale and the thrush came out ot the Ctudett of Eden, with song the same a« now Their song is the icsult of long n.-es of cult irn> ion. Some birds Mover cnitld halt n. others only a little. •..Idle a le > picked up the last notes Into all and a genius put. them togetliei and song became hereditary in oi.| tain birds. Music in birds and music .and the sense ol colour in man I believe, came by gtadtial devehqrmeiil. THE BLACK lillll). This an importation of doubtful utility. They always had a had reputation in orchards at home where they no dotiln. did a lot of damage, and their usefulness was never vety apparent. They now swarm all over Westland and have the same Old Country eliteness in avoiding danger. They don’t sing much out hero. 1 have seldom heard them jierfnrining. THE LA UK. It is the same in song and habits out here as in its ancient liomc, still singing on the wing and frequenting n]>on country which is rather scarce in Wontlaud. Consequently larks are scarce also. THE ROBIN REDBREAST. I don’t know whether any cine Inis succeeded in importing this bird. 1 know it was tried and only hope 1 will sic some in West land. With all my abuse of the bird a few pages hack, I always had a liking I'm it. and don’t recollect ol ever having rohlied their nest or killed any even in my juvenile days, and a rohin appearing in Westland would he hailed with delight, at least liv those people who weio limn round the globe. If they have lieen introduced into New Zealand it must have Ins'll an interesting sight to have seen the first meeting between redbreast and white breast. Leathers would soon he flying. THE STARLINTL

Another bird swarming in thicks all liver the country, in towns, villages and in thi' wildest districts. They are useful in eating grub and caterpillars and other insects who since the disapjicuiance of native birds became so numerous as to materially interfere with farming, so no more growls about them, as yet, till someone who likes to see his name in the papers will discover some vice in the starling—or imagine he has—result in a howl to Government to supply poison to every settler tree ol charge. THE SPARROW. There is no use saying where this bird is. Tie is everywhere and I >k>lieve would thrive in the moon, fie is a very much abused bird. Everyone almost without exception, asks what j they were brought out for, and they, are poisoned, shot and sworn at all ] over the country. Y’ot where would , cultivation lie without them and other, small birds that have been imported. ' The native birds would have done just ' as well. Only man with a want of forethought introdueed animals to de- ‘

stray them. When too late other birds .had to be introduced. Now the howl is poison the lot. Granted that the sparrows and other birds eat grain. But what about the insects they destroy, inserts that if left alone would have destroyed more grain than a million sparrows. The sparrow says, "You paid our passage out and this country must' keep ns. \) edo our host in dcstioying insects and work hard at it to. Y oil won't work for nothing, why should we. so wo take our wages, out in tithe, of seeds or grain.” The blackbird and black swan I am dubious about, but 1 believe all the other imported birds do far more good than harm. In the future some of them may become a nuisance, hut that time has not yet arrived: Wait till that happens. It. is a shame to poison birds because some miserable cockatoo, who if asked could give no direct proof, imagines they are destroying the crops, lie never blames the poverty of the ground or his own had farming if grain does not come up as expected. BREAKS OK NATURE.

Among the birds of Westland 1 ha\o duly seen one hybrid. That was a cross between a swamp hen and a domestic fowl, Tt had the beak of the fowl, hut the rest belonged to swampy. It was a peculiar looking object and very shy, although one parent must have been a domestic fowl, the other a bird notorious for its impudence. How the cross took place 1 leave to others to unravel. It was ai the mouth of the Haast where a number of domestic fowls had taken to the bush, where tl.is hirtl was seen. It could have been shot or run down with a dog, but it was too mucli of an oddity to lie killed just to examine it closely. I have often found malformed wekas - a foot turned round, the result of tin accident when young. A defective beak, perhaps erusliud with'a stone, or burnt in a smouldering camp lire, anil iiin-,’ I pot a woka with only one wing, bill all these couldn't he called freaks of nature, hut results' ot accidents alter birth. As said before, ducks with only one leg are often to lie ioutid. Birds of a different colour from their usual plumage are rare. A few complete ones have been found, hut in general they are only partly coloured. The best sjiecimon I ever saw was a kaknpo v Hi<-Ii was completely yellow and looked like a giant canary. What became of it is not known. It was sent to Hokitika and there vanished. No doubt it was sent to Wellington to soft soap some otlieial who had billets at his disposal. The next freak I got myself. Digging ■'ll a kiwi hole. I hauled out one bird of the usual grey colour, hut tin*other was I,lack nr nearly so as if it had been tun up and down a very dirty chimney. I bad never seen or heard of one heloro, so .1 sent the skin to the museum in Nelson. At hast somebody sent it for me. As usual I heard no more about it. The skill was never even acknowledged. I bin, uol II II a w eka petleetly ".I ili-. although a few have been found liv ol iiei people, luusl probably ill C'auteflnirv or Otago where the bird is much lighter in plumage and huger than the Westland liitd, hut wekas with a few white leathers gem-tally on the wings are often to Ire found. Titi-s with white feathers on them where the plumage ought to tie dark me also to he seen. Inn I have never seen a pure white one. On the llaast beach there was at one time a snow white sluig. but we never could get near liiin . Ile knew his value.

A pigeon would be about the lasi bird one w'ould expect to alter its coat, but. I ntiee saw une nearly pure while. The head aim:.' was grey. At lirst 1 thought it was a tame bird gone astray, hut after watching it for a while I saw it was unmistakably a native woml pigeon iu all i scent its colour. This bird did not go tu a museum and may he alive vet.

SEA BIRDS. I now come to an order of birds I l.iiuw little about. Most of them are uninteresting except ton naturalist and the grcHtei number oi them are common to many other countries, as their wing power is generally greater than any land bird, and they depend lor their food on the limitless ocean if food gets scarce. It is simply up stream and they are half round the glubo iu no time. Une virtue they have is they are not always lighting with each other like so manv land birds. All varieties ol sea birds may often he seen sitting on a rock in perfect peace with each other. Perhaps as they are continually at win with the inhabitants of the waters, they have no occasion to reliuvc their .superfluous energies by lighting aiming themselves. (To be continued).