WANDERINGS IN WESTLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 26 February 1930, Page 2

WANDERINGS IN WESTLAND

NOTES OX BIRD-LIFE IN THE WEST COAST SOUNDS.

(By Richard Henry)

(Head before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 13th O'etoDoi, 1897.)

WOODHENS (Ocydromus)

We have cleared most of the little peninsula on which our house stands, and now it is a favourite place tor the woodhens, but they' do not like each other’s company, .find there are seldom more than two to he seen at once, though there are half a dozen occasional visitors. They oiten treat us to some spirited races across the open, and are no menn runners wncn assisted by their wings, but all seem to be so well matched that they generally run dead heats. If there happens to be one a little slow it is sure to bo numis its tail, which is not of much account anyway; yet they seem to think a great deal of it, for the pulling of feather is sure to bring on a fight, very fierce at first, but quickly dying away into threatening attitudes and various grunts which may represent bad language. The championship appears to be awarded more for courage than muscle, because the smallest hen, when slie was thinking ol nesting, would, hunt awaj all the others, both males and females except her mate, with whom she was generally friendlv, but not always so. Those were the only pair here mated throughout the winter, and the only pair that would sing in concert. The male is bur’pet, and we call him “Chicken.”

Out of all the, others we hardly heard a chirrup until about the 16th July, when several of the old widows became quite musical all at once, and vied with" each other in calling the loudest and the fastest. Then, to our surprise, we heard by the lower note and slower tune of one that it was a male. This one came to our place in a most disreputable rig-out of halfmoulted feathers, so I called it “Scrag.” It was a weakly, poor thing, and one of the hens used to thrash it and hunt it away. That is why I thought it a widow, though it had the stronger beak and legs of a male. However, 1 gave it a few good dinners of boiled fisb, ana it soon plucked up courage and learned to know the rattle of the -lid on the dog’s pot, and would come up carefully for a share. The dog seemed to notice that they only took little bits, and he soon disregarded them: so that now when I . spread out fish on a stone it i s common to see a weka on one side and a dog on the other, and both quite contented. With better times and a grand new coat Scrag actually captivated the lien that used to hunt him about so contemptuously—the old story, ‘‘The course of true love,” etc. Then he started a series of, fights with Chicken and kept them up for several days, until both had lost nearly all the pretty feathers or. their heads; and Chicken was obliged to give up part of bis domain, retaining the house and Sandy Bay-., while. Scrag has Boatslied Beach. The boundary is a bunch of fallen timber, amt they keep it fairly, well, only Scrag is tempted up to the house sometimes for scraps, when he knows he is poaching, and avill run with whatever he gets and eat it- on his own ground Chicken often hunts him to the boundary, but Scrag will not run a yard past it, so that they often have a fight clown there, but nothing very serious. They jump up and kick like common fowl, but their clears are very weak, and can have no effect on such tough hides as theirs; and their wings are soft and fluffy, and only useful to hide their heads when down at the end of n round. The beak is the weapon, and the head the only place they aim at, so that there is a lot of shaping and fencing for very little bloodshed; in fact, their whole aim appears to Do to disfigure each other by plucking the feathers that contribute most to personal appearances. At all events, that is the result of their battles, If Chicken was fighting for a mate now he would have no chance at all, for he looks so scrubby about the head that no self-respecting Maori hen would look at him. The hens seem to have the same object in view when they fight, and it is equally effective. There was a pretty little him here until she got her “Head plucked and lost all her good looks, and now' she is always calling for a mate, but apparently cannot find one. This is surely an advance on the old method of deciding between rivals, for science has a better show', and there is less cruelty, yet te desired effect is attained.

Chicken can dance beautifully when he likes, which is very seldom, and very little of it. at that. He wares his wings', dives his head, swings it to. and fro, and then with a flap, a jump, and another wave of the wings, lie blinks his eyes as if he forgot the re«t. Yet lie lias the right idea, and knows perfectly well what i's graceful in motion. He has also some idea, of “showing off.” his beauty spots being the hared primaries, which he shows to the best advantage by stretching his wings forward towards the ground at the same time making himself fall and full breasted: but the' l humour takes him just as seldom as the dancing.

f found their nest about 200 yards away, in the sunniest place they could find, on a little hill. It is sheltered fhom the rain by the drooping flax leaves, is deep and warm, and lined with frayed and dead flax. Every evening slip used to go up there and pall for him, and if down at the house

lie would answer and go away at once; They were always clucking and croaking about there, but I could never find any eggs in it.

On the 24th August, in the early morning, Chicken marched into the house and craned his neck at unhands with unusual eagerness. I thought he must he very hungry, and I gave him some food, which, contrary to his usual custom, lie took up and carried a wav, trotting along the beach with his neck stretched out as li he was jn a great hurry. After breakfast, when working at our big boatshed, we notice him passing several times with some tiny grub or worm in his hill. I thought he must be feeding bis mate while hatching, and went way to see the nest, but it wa - empty and cold. Act all that din he was running hack and forward until evening, when his gait gave the idea that he was tired out with so many journeys. Late in the evening he stayed away, and his mate came up to the house for iood. Next morning when he came I went away along his track, and Burt gave him something, which he promptly brought along, but instead of going to the nest he turned away in the bush, and I had to follow his beaten track until I heard him ducking, and soon saw him under the bushes breaking up the food and calling his mate to the feast. I saw' her on a new nest, but fearing she might forsake that, also 1 came away and left them.

A day or two later, when both were at the house, I went away to see the eggs; but the nest was empty--no eggs and no young ones. “Ail a hoax,” said 1, “or else the rats have eaten them.”' Bui next day, when coming home, we met them near the beach, and they scolded and threatened the dogs, so that I knew - they had chickens, but I had to warn a long time before the old ones got con-fid.-nee enough to call out of ilieii hiding throe tiny little black chickens which were just able to stagger about, yet with sense enough to scramble under cover when the old ones toici them to do so. They gradually btought them nearer the house until they occupied a sheltered corner, where the little ones remained while t!i(> parents went away for food, 'ibey arc the very best of nurses. 'lhe male in particular is never tired, of running here and there and bringing home something. They seldom succeed in getting more than enough, localise when we give them too much they cram the little ones until they cannot eat another scrap, and then the ohl ones become solicitous, and hold up food to them with a crooning, pitiful note, as if they feared ike little gluttons were going to die because they could not cat.

On a, w'et day the parents look miserable running about in the wet. hut the little ones will be stowed away in some cosy' nook, and never think of following the old ones without a great deal of calling and coaxing. In this matter they appear quite intellectual compared with other fowl; but they may have learnt the idea, before the advent of rats, and retained part of it for more than a hundred generations after its utility had become doubtful. That is in theory.- Jnpractice there are as many' wekas as can get a decent living, many ol them being poor and insufficiently fed, for which they can thank the rats. Recently I left a penguin's egg near a rat hole, and when 1 returned ten minutes later the egg was gone. 'lhe rats are munerou.s and fierce, anu why they have not eaten tlie little chickens when both parents are away I cannot understand, especially when they are so often in holes that would just suit the rats.

The staple food of the wekas appears to be sand fleas, which are here in plenty, not only on the beaches, but all through the bush, under the dead leaves and rubbish; and they are never timl raking over this and pulling about the seaweed in seaioh of them. They also pull about the dead grass and turn over every chip in search of other things, but it is all done with tile beak—they .are not such, fools as to go kicking things all over the place like common fowls. The sand-fleas are lively, and can make long jumps, so that whilst a rooster would be turning round to look for them they would have all jumped away. Of course, there are hosts of other insects, including cockroaches in plenty and monster earthworms, which they may catch at night, for they are often out on mild nights, and always active late in the evening. Yet they seem to prefer the scraps from our table to anything they have on their own. and - soon learn to eat everything we have. They may have acquired their taste for fish by finding some stranded on the beach, but where they learned to eat bread and butter is a mystery, for they taka to it like a robin. There is a little plant with a white bulb like a marble which they know well, and iike to eat, but it is watery and quite tasteless.

I threw my hat at one of them one day for being in-some mischief, and it is quite comical how long and how well lie remembers it, for whenever 1 take my hat off now lie is under cover like-a flash. And, again, a young one came to us at the clearing, and after dinner we brought it some food: and in that one lesson it learned the motion of the hand in throwing the food, so that some days after when ! pretended to throw it- something it ran towards me and looked for it on the ground. Thus they appear to lie strikingly sensible, because they learn at once by experience; and if every living thing did that there would be hardly any fools after a few years’ experience. Though their brain may be very small, it is probably of fine quality, or perhaps a host of fancies are absent in their ease, and only the useful faculties are developed. I found Scrag’s nest on the /tli September, with two eggs in it, but they

laid another after that, and brought out the chickens on the Bth October, so that the period of incubation was about twenty-seven days. They took turns at hatching, for when I saw the hen on the beach 1 found the male on the nest, and vice versa; and m this they show their sense also, for it is easv for two compared with one doing it all, as in the case of the kiwi and kakapo. ‘ln duly, when out at the dealing I heard a wood!,on screaming in distress down in a gully, and as it continued I called to Burt, who was nearer the spot, to see what was the matter. (Juiced by the sound, he went down quickly and found a sparrowhnvk holding on to a woodhen under a log. He caught the hawk, and the hen. ran away'. When I went over 1 saw that the hawk’s beak was full oi the inner down of the hen, s> that she had a narrow escape that time, and by calling for help cxihungod places wi.h hei enemy. They have a special note to indicate the presence of a sparrow-hawk, and generally let Us know when there is one about. The tuis, mokos, and robins can also sing out “Sparrow-lnvwk!” m their own language, and all the others understand; so that he i.s proclaimed everywhere he goes, which is ju-c what he does not want, and he must nave a very vexatious time of it trying to get a living. On another occasion J hung a fishing-nec on the clothes-lines to dry, and when we came home a little male sparrow-hawk was,caught in the net about Ift. ; from the -ground. Our tame weka was in a great .state of agitation, yet bold enough to come up and peck at the hawk in defence of her chickens, who was probably stooping for one of them when the net

caught him. In-seven weeks the three emckens grew-up nearly as big as their parents, hut very soft, of course. And then one of them disappeared, with a hawk". I suppose,-• though we had killed six. and thought we were doing a goor! tuirn, because we saw one hunting a pigeon. When the tide is low and the wekas are tempted away out on the beaches I think the hawks take 90 per cent, of the young ones, which may he quite desirable, because from recent developments the wekas ap-peai* to be the worst enemies of the ducks. , Our goose made her nest rigid, before the window, and only 19 yards from the house. In gathering ui«ueiial she took a little straw, but preferred more substantial stuff. A\ hen leaving the nest sjlie carefully covered up 1 - tlipi eggs. . so’'th at s J ;wa ssu rprisod to find it so' deep among the sprigs au.flchips. I.'covered it up again as I got it, hut next morning the m*sl was opened, and only a few scraps of eggshells remained. 1 was not sure whether it was the dog or the weld, but intended to fine) out. Ibe veka was evidently interested in the rest, for we saw him walking round the while the goose was on it. We knew, also,, that he would break an egg at sight, for we tried him with a penguin’s egg; he had also stolen a roa-s

egg-shell and destroyed it. 'lbis was a. strong; shell, and I saved part of it to show how ho could punch holes in it. He could pick up a penguin’s egg and mu away with it so < iiickly that I could hardly, get it from him. We got several goose-eggs by going at once . and taking them away,, until one morning I was busy with .logfires and did not go at once. I heard when the goose came off, because her marc gave her a nojsy greeting, and a few minutes afterwards I found the nest torn about and the iv’eka and his family around the broken eg;: ■ some yards away. Next time tne goose was on the nest the wcka waited about there all the time, though the gander tried to drive him' away, and I went out and threw soft things at him. yet he flipped about and defied me, so that I took a dislike to him for lr.s outrageous cunning. When tlie goose came away Hurt went at Once and found the weka digging up the nest in search of the egg: and when she started to hatch, though there were no eggs, she regularly colored up .the nest when leaving it. and the weka never failed to rake it out when he found her absent, and. of course, a goose could never hatch an eerr where there was stic-h art artful ami patient thief as that. Long ago I knew they were eggeaters, but I never dreamed that they were half so bad as this shows them to be. We have had this wcka since it was a chicken, and lie has only a small domain whore there are no penguins. Probably be never saw a duck’s nest in his life, and cortainiv not a goose’s, foi this was tlrq firsi in the sound, yet he seemed to know all about it, and that the eggs would be covered up. The ducks cover their* until they start to hatch, and then also when they leave the nest of their own accord; and that is evidently where this weka's forefathers learno, the habit, and faithfully handed il down to this promising youngster. To tins small matter bangs a very lonar. old story, which wc will never hoa r in full, about the ducks watching and • fighting for their eggs, and the wekas 'successfully robbing them year arteyear until it became a fixed mbit fm transmission, the result of winch ve saw plainer and truer than by writing. (To be continued.')