IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Hokitika Guardian, 9 December 1922, Page 4

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

THE HONEY-EATERS. (By J. Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S. in tho “Lyttelton Times”). An unprccedently dry season seems to have retarded the fuchsia in South i Westland forests. It was coming into tho fullness and beauty of its reds and purpled there in tho last week in October, and bellbirds, and tuis, attracted by the nectar, were giving animation to tho fuchsia trees. They are. restless birds, when they are amongst t.bft fuchsia flowers at least. Tho rapidity with which they pass from flower to flower, emptying each nectary, is surprising. The process is made somewhat difficult

for them by the fact that all fuchsia flowers are pendulous. The flowers always are on tho lower side of each branch. Whatever position they may be in originally, their stalks twist until they bang head downwards. Hon-ey-eaters have to stand on one branch and stretch to flowers on a higher branch, or have to cling to a branch, swing their bodies under it, like acrobats on a pole, and in that upsidedown position thrust their bills up into tho flowers on the same branch. Instinct or practice has made them experts. Bellbirds seem to be quicker than tuis, perhaps because they arc sjeiulerer. Tho following notes were made on a bridge over a creek at Rukekura, South Westland, when a fuchsia at ono end of the bridge was visited first by a bellhird and then a tui. “The bollbird was quicker and supped from more flowers than tlie tui sampled, and it seemed to be more agtir, and to take more pleasure in the occupation. As soon a,s if was finished it chimed exceptionally loud and clear, but tho tui left without a sound, except a noisy flutter.” All the honey eaters, the melip'nagidae, have long tongues -which they can thrust into the ilowurs, and which are equipped at the tips, with bunches of stiff fibres. The tui and tho bell-bird lire the principal New Zealanders members of tba family. The white-eye is a near relation.

Female skylarks in England on rare occasions have been known to remove eggs from their units when danger threatened the treasures. Ibe first record of this habit in New Zealand was made bv Air AY. Wright’s children, Charlie, Flo and Natia, in a paddockon Air AA l ight's farm, on the bed of the AA’aitaba River, South Westland.. The full flood of joyous song of a .skylark came down through heavy rain. AA'heu it stopped the songster was seen to descend and to drop diagonally and ! quickly to the ground. A search disclosed a typical skylark's nest in the grass, close to a rush. The rush gave it litlo protection, but neither the neat, nor the three greyish white eggs, spotted and clouded with brown, scented to be more than slightly affected by tho rain. A piece of paper was t’iej to another rush within a fev yards, to mark the place., and the nest was watched until, a- few days Intel, all tho e"gs were missing. Stoats and weasels abound in the district, but tho i«_'gs evidently were not taken by them." as Dure was no evidenco'of robbery. The discovery of the nest and tlm’ presence of hiiimin beings seem to have alarmed the the owner sufficiently to induce her to remove the eggs. Shu probablv carried them assay singly m iicr Dili Tliev would not have beau interfered with, hut, after strange eyes had seem them, she was not taking any risks. Blackbirds and song-thrushes make miicli tiso of native shrubs, brambles, and small trees on Air Wright’s farm. Urey ducks nest and roar their young close to water-holes in the paddocks. On October 2oUi when the children, were bringing in tho cows, a g'e.A duck arose close to the farm road ami wheeled In a wide circle, some thirty foot over-head, with notes oi anger and alarm. Her foolish action leu to the disclosure of tier young lainily, prettv little creatures greyish-brown with "yellow chucks. They immediately scatteiL'd and .scuttled amongst the rushes and showed amazing celerity in hiding effectively. Having waulu-A mail j*il <l;iu£i'r hail passed, she cal cu he a family together again and settled (lou-n to limp family affairs. Kingfishers’ screeches may he heard at intervals all day long oil the farm. Sometimes their coats of many colours flash, in tho sun as they fly straight and swill from a, lofty tree to the ground or into a creek. They tunnel men

1 lists in red pines, white pines, and i black pines. Grey warblers often are I heard on the farm, hut seldom seen, j and their nests have not been found I ilien, A tame black-hacked gull | hatched on the bed of the Waitahn and | caught when young, spends much time iaf the homestead, a mile from the I river. The gall ..sometimes goes away I and returns with a mate, but does not allow the* mate to stay. The chaliiiieli ! the sparrow, the radpollli the galdfineh, ! and the yellow hammer are among.- 1 the introduced birds present in large numbers. The following additional records have been made of the shining cuckoo’s appearance this season:— October I.—Maiigalioc, IluiiUrville, Mr A. Sutherland. October I. —Half Moon Bay, Stewart Island, Mr G. li. -Miirtn. “Have ! heard it several times at different ! placdi and have, seen two.” ! October s.—Epsom, Auckland, .Mrs H. R. Hesketh: “My son, on his way • to ‘the top of acacia, drew my attention to a shining green bird on a branch just.beneath him, and when, at - tho same time, the familiar plaintive notes were heard. 1 realised with delight that the little harbinger of spring had arrived.” October 6.—New Plymouth, Mr \V. \Y. Smith: “Wo have found two grey warblers’ nests, with four eggs in each, so we may again find the sinning cuckoo’s egg or eggs in another bird’s nest, as wo did last year.” October 7.—Port Levy, Banks Peninsula. Mr R. J. Fleming. October B.—Paparoa, North Auckland, Mr W. H. Wilkins: “Was doubtful when I heard it, but got a telescope and picked it out on the brandies of a poplar about fifty yards away.” October If.—Nibotapu, ~lr N. F. MuHea\ “Since September 21st, tho date given by Sir Walter Bullet- as that on which for years the shining cuckoo arrived at Whangarei J lead, we have kept a. sharp look-out for t. We heard it to-day close to tho verandah of tho Convalescent Home. It uttered its notes several times, blit we could not see it.” October 12.—Rcdvole, Eden County, Auckland, Mrs S. Chappell: “It was singing its joyous tittle song, but it seems to be very shy, and we seo it only occasionally at a distance. There always is much ecstasy in the sing.” October 12.—Pukawa., a .Maori sottlemon on the shore of Luke T.'iupo, live miles from Toknnnu, Mrs E. O’Malley. October 17.—Esplanade Road, Mount Eden, Auckland, Miss M. Taylor: “Tho familiar notes come from sonie trees in a neighbour’s garden in Prospect Rise, not more than a. stone’s throw from our front door. I have heard it only twice since.” Ou to burl 18.—Broodway, Hdkianga,

Air T. A. Newton; “Heard in the. morning-in tho bush near my house.” October 28.—Rukekura, a mile south of the. AA’aitahn River, South Ayiestland, Flo land 'Naitiin Wright. Heard in lofty reel pines close to the roadside, a few chains from .Air

Wright’s house, and seen flying from ono tree to another. Sister Alison .Tauniaranui, reports that she heard tlio long-tailed cuckoo for the first time this year seen before j

dawn on October loth. It. was in trees on the bank of the Wanganui River, near the Taumaruuiii township. “A pair of very plump, glossy wood pigeons often feed, from bushes only a few feet from the house,” Air

N. F. Atulier writes front the Convalescent Home at Nihotapu. “Tuis are plentiful, but- during an easterly gale early in October they went further back over the city water reservation area, where, after sunset, wo beard them apparently imitating bell-oirds. They are back again now, October lltli sheltering Prom the south-west winds. As far as I have observed, bellbirds do not eonto this side of tlio reservation, but at Kare-Kare last Christmas wo heard their , chimes very early in the morning. AA'heu the full day broke tho melody ceased, as it by a signal. Tuis then took up the notes, evidently trying to imitate the bellbirds, but finally were content to use tlteir ow n liquid notes. Air Farley tells tue that during the flowering season of the pohutukawa and the flax, bellhiids cwno in large numbers to sip the honey.” , .... October 21.—AA'oIsley Avenue, -Milford, Takapuna, Auckland. Air E. AI. Haeusler. “I beard two, one quite dose to the house, in a willow grove, and tho other some distance away. Grey warblers are quite plentiful m tbi,s" locality, so the..cuckoo .wall have no difficulty in finding suitable nests lor its eggs ” , ■