IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Hokitika Guardian, 14 July 1927, Page 1

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

THE MUD-FISH. (15y J. Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S. ill “Lyttelton Times.”) Ylr H .Ylulviliill, 131, Hobson Street, Auckland, has asked more questions about New Zealand’s mud-fish than can be answered at present. It is so rare that there have been very few opportunities to study it.s structure or its habits. Years ago, Ylr Ylulviliill was given two live individuals taken by workmen from a- railway cutting on the YVest Coast. They were dug out about two feet below the surface. Their environment was only damp. He placed them in water in a small howl, in which they lived for about two weeks. All tho time they were in a bowl, they swam on their sides, at an angle of 30deg. They were about three inches long and resembled the New Zealand smelt, but were somewhat darker in colour. He asks how tho New Zealand mud-fish lives in the mud. if it is a true fish, and if it burrows from holes in which it may live before it gets into the mud. New Zealand’s mud-fisli is reported so seldom that Ylr YV. J. Phillips, a mo ml ter of the staff of the Dominion Yluseum, Wellington, believes that there is little doubt that, as forests are gradually cleared and swamps are drained, it will become extinct. Tltis is regrettable, first-, because it is unique in New Zealand’s animaTlife, and. secondly, because of the scanty information as to its methods and its habits. Tile latest reports of it are associated with two individuals received at the Dominion Museum four years ago. With some difficulty, they .were obtained from a forest swamp about twelve miles inland from Hokitika. The first mud-fish in New Zealand was found in that district, and most of the individuals known, of came from there, but others, strangely have come as far from Hokitika- as Rangitikei, a long distance away. The latest individuals were sent, to the Dominion Yluseum by Yfr YV. C. Braddon, Hokitika, wlio has bad a long experience of the YVest Coast, and who states that the mudfish is rare. Ho adds that during tho past twenty-throe years it has been found on only a few occasions. Ihe homo of those he sent to the Dominion Yluseum was under white pine stumps that stood on low-lying bine clay country, subject to floods. The first record of the mud-fish, apptrently, was made fifty-five years ago. Mr G. G. Fitzgerald, when trenching on the YVest Coast, near Hokitika, probably, was surprised to find several individuals. As there had been heavy rain, it was thought that the fish leil front the sk.v. The soil was only about

six inches deep, beneath it there was very tenacious blue subsoil. The mudfishes were at least eighteen inches in the sub-soil, each in a small chamber. The elav was damp, but there was no water near. The chamber was dry, and was completely shut in from above, and the large root of a tree passed over the place. Some forty years ago, Mr R. (.. Reid, who described interestingly his rambles on the YVest Coast, mentioned this curiosity. “It was once supposed to live in the mud front choice,” he wrote. “It has often boon excavated irom considerable depths tn clayey soil. As the waters dry up. it is forced to wriggle into the mud at the bottom, and tne sides of swamps pool’s it inhabits. In some instances it lias been known to follow down the moisture in holes left by decaying roots and got a considerable deptli underground. When the surface of the ground was perfectly dry and Iho whole of it had been and improved, the discovery of a healthy fish five or six feet under solid dry ground was looked upon as truly miraculous. Its usual habitat is a pool or a small creek on swampy ground, where it remains swimming nearly ah iho year round, tho fry hatching in September or October. Young fish liai'l an inch longstan be obtained in January.” About” fifteen years ago, some mud-fisli were reported from a farm in

Canterbury. The species from the West Coast and Ilangitikei, in zoological records, is Neochanna apoda. Tt is related to the kokopti, or mountain trout,” whose sluggishness, is referred to in Maori sayings, and it is a true ii sh.

Now Zealand’s mud-fish is not one of the Dipnoi, the lung-fishes, known also as nnid-fishes, belonging to Australia, South America and West Africa. Now Zealand’s mud-fish, and, in a wider sense, the lung-fishes, are examples of discontinuous distribution. It lias been established that in former geological ages the Dipnoi had a continuous distribution. That is, they lived in countries not widely apart. Competition from other animals, change of climate, or other unfavourable conditions, it Is believed, caused them to become extinct in some countries, leaving them in isolated parts. In other classes of the animal kingdom, there are many cases of discontinuous distribution, probably due to the same cause. New Zealand’s two rare native frogs, Liopei’ma Tfoohstettcri and Liopclina Ilamiltoiii. belong to a small family that lives in Europe, Northern Africa, Asia, and California. Liopclina. it is believed, vainc to New Zealand ages ago by land connection between this country and South-Eastern China. The Inti a. a starling, has an ally in •India. Nile .Millay Archipelago 'New Guinea and Northern Australia. The closest ally of the native thrush is in India and Java. The fern-bird is found in South A Irion as well as in Nett Zealand, and it lias a close tills in Madagascar. The wood-pigeon’s nearest reltiitives tire in the fruit-eating pigeons of India, the Malay Archipelago. Polynesia. Northern Australia and Now Caledonia. New Zealand's long-tailed hat is found in this Dominion and South-East Australia and nowhere else.

In the Amazon and its tributaries and in swamps in that country the mud-fish, or lung-fish, when the water where it lies dries up. burrows into the mud. It leaves an opening dose to the burrow. Through the opening ir is able to take in air until the rainy season comes. The young of tno South American and the South Airitan mud-fishes breathe by means of external gills. Traces of these remain throughout life in the South African form. This mild-fish frequents marshes as well as rivers. It goes down into the dry mud or more than a loot and lies dormant for months. Part of the slime with which it surrounds itself keeps its skin moist. The outer i part, with adherent earth hardens into a cocoon An aperture is continued inwards into a small funnel. On this the mud-fish Abuts its lips and air passes directly 'to the lungs. For a fish out of water. Professor J. A. Thomson states, it does very well, but its life is almost at a standstill during the long rest in the dry season. A few weeks ago reference was

made to friendly relations established by observers in the North Island with eels, whiclh. when their attention was attracted, came close to the banks to he fed. Miss Stevens, nil luglov, god lady, when saying goodbye to her lather at a gate to the drive one morning, .saw an eel basking in the sun in a pond. Having heard of people who had tried to tame cels, she set herself tlio task of taming the one that attracted her attention. It accepted bread crumbs she gently threw into the pond. Site continued to provide crumbs for several days. Site then varied ihe diet with meat .and the eel would take crumbs no longer. Her patience was further rewarded when that eel. and a small silvery one. showed their confidence by eating food out ot her hand, and by allowing her to softly mb their heads with one ol her lingers. She attracted the eels when she went to feed them, and she soon saw them coming from under leaves or sticks to be fed. Children, who went to see Hie tame eoK at first drove them a wav by their presence, but alter a time the eels came as readily as l*rP re. Ihe big eel. becoming jealous of the smaller one. attacked it and bit pieces out of its tin. They sometimes fought against each other nose to nose, with their hacks doubled up. 'I hey always selected sunny parts of the nond to lie in.