In Touch With Nature.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 March 1923, Page 4

In Touch With Nature.

BIRDS IN A WONDERFUL VALLEY. (By ,J. Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S. in Lvttelton Times). n The romantic and majestic country in North-west Otago, so alluring to 0 people who love the valley's and the t mountains, so little known to New e Zealanders is the subject of a letter t from Dr D. A. Bathgate, of Hauraki Plains. lie spout two slimmer holi- ( day seasons in camp at the head of the .Matukituki River, which drains a small part of the great southern ramm- 1 tain chain, including .Mounts Aspiring, > Tyndall, Barff, Bevan and other peaks, t with their attendant glaciers and snow- , fields. After a comparatively short course, it empties itself into the southern end of Lake Wanaka. almost opposite Pembroke. "Its course,'’ Dr ' Bathgate writes, "is typical of the I courses of a hundred other snow-foil, i eastward-flowing rivers. The sides ot j the mountains and the upper part of i the valley are clothed in dense beech I forests. The valley, lower down, opens I out into flats, often 'Wiimpy, covered j with tussock and Wild Irishmen. Any attempt by me to describe the beauties lof this lonely mountain valley would \be futile; a life-time would be all too short to explore ami admire its grandeur. Mrs Alice Morland, in 'Through South Westland,' describes a few day.’ stnv in the Western Matukituki. 1 wish to recommend this hook to till who are interested in our country’s beauties. As is the ease all too often, it is left to the overseas

visitor to appreciate and describe t': ■ matchless scenic attractions unheeded by us at our doors.” Dr Bathgate’s object is to record observations of birds ill that wonderful region. He writes: “On our tramp up the valley, the first sign of birdlife was a lamily of paradise ducks, lather, mol her and ten little ones. The male gallantly threw himself down a few yards ill iront of us, and set up a series of heart-rending screeches c, Idle lie floundered and flapped ahead with a pretended broken wing. ’1 he Icuinie on the meantime quickly led 1., : little ones to cover ill the reed- of :i marshv swamp. She tame out later to help file male to hire m from thhidden young. Ihe same performance t\ ns given for our benefit a hundred times. The acting of those birds is not iar short of marvellous. Two shepherd's dogs, which accompanied us part of the way, fell for if, as the Americans say, every time. The incidents were like tints: Round a he.nil in Hm valley, or over a rise, we see a family parly of ducks. Away go the dogs with a rush, as if they heard the din-ner-hell ringing: and ill front ol tiiein down tumbles a male cluck, quacking and threshing about on the ground, a helpless criptile lie would have them believe. The dogs look at each oilier, and we almost hear I hem say Our luck's in this lime.’ They advance ste dihilv. one on each side, and make a r,nick rush to finish off then victim : hut the duel;, strange le say. is felt yards off. still quacking and dragging

■Then the stalk begins and the j chase inutilities by stages quite away i ii nm where llie young are hidden.. Mu- j,. dug- first look foolish, then impatient, j ami finally, threw discretion to the f wind and rush pell-mell alter the male, which rises some feet above the ground, with the dogs harking, yelping ami humping each other below him. V iih j ,\ squawk In* wk«-<*ls mi : J n '* awav. leaving the dogs staring foolisblv j or working off their tempers on each • other, for dogs, like human beings, do j lief like to be held up to ridb ukWhen the next family ol ducks appears | tlu-v go over the whole performance j again • 1 suppose that they live in hope” that some day they will discover ji duel; with a real physical disability.