VICISSITUDES OF BIRDS.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 August 1924, Page 1

VICISSITUDES OF BIRDS.

It is not often, apparently, that land birds are driven out to sea—for instance. by tt cyclonic storm—and perish, Init such avian tragedies do sometimes occur. The writer has found Blue -Mountain parrots tossing in the surf oil a Smith Coastal New South Wales beach without any mark of injury on their bodies, but with their beaut it ill plumage— green, scarlet, orange. and bln:—sorely bedraggled. These derelicts had probably been driven out to sea hv a sudden storm, as the Blue Mountain parrot feeds much on honey or sweet juices sucked from the (lowers of banksias and gum trees growing near the beaches. Another observer records an instance in which the bodies ol si raw-necked ibis, the ••farmer's friends” (of which a large Hock had been seen some time previously), were found strewn upon a beach in (he same quarter. These birds visit Tasmania, hut are not migratory in the sense that, for instance. the ••.lack.'’ or Australian snipe, and sett or Australian curlew are, these birds invariably breeding (during our winter) in Northern China and Siberia. Although there are, as far as the writer knows, no instances of these birds having perished while on the (to them immense journey, yet the silver-eye izosternps) has introduced itself to Now Zealand, to which country it is not indigenous, only within the last 50 years. The journey to New Zealand involves a non-stop lliglit over one thousand miles of ocean, and this stretch, to small birds of comparatively weak wing-power, such as the 'ilver-eyc. must indeed he a formidable undertaking.

Tin; birds of this species which first colonised New Zealand with their him! m:iy cenninly have been helped while on their long journey by favouring winds, but. nevertheless, the teat is remarkable. Kvon the truly nonunlic birds sometimes perish while attempting their tremendous journey which may amount to over four thousand miles') to Northern Asia. At the approach of one unusually severe winter 1 found lyimr en a South Coastal bluff the bodies of a eottple of sharp-tailed sandpipers, or stints, huddled elosely together, as though tor warmth, which had evidently perished while on their great northern journey. Such birds ns these, and also the “Jack” snipe, sea curlew, grey plover, knot or knot

snipe, and several others, invariably breed in the far north, using Australia as a summer feeding ground. The painted snipe, however, always rare even in Gould's time ithe ’Forties of last century) —-belongs to Australia, and of course breeds there. Gould records that he look an egg from the body of a female shot on the Upper Hunter River, hut that ho could never discover the nest in situ. Nomadic birds, when migrating, travel al a considerable height, and are not often seen while tints engaged. The writer has observed "Jack” snipe, gun-driven and about to leave the quarter in which they have been disturbed, mount high in the air, and then dash oil in a "bee-line" towards their chosen destination, hut in ordinary circumstance their flight is short and low.