WANDERINGS IN WESTLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 28 February 1930, Page 2

WANDERINGS IN WESTLAND

NOTES ON BIRD-LIFE IN THE WEST COAST SOUNDS.

(Bv Iliclnjrd Henry)

(Rond before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 13th October, 1897.)

(Continued.)

THE KOA .(Apteryx astralis.)

In coining homo on the 10th December wo brought, two• roas, and 1 have been feeding thorn since, arm watching their manners in their little paddock in the, oveni'ngs., Two things are notable—the large; quantity they cat, and their unexpected, activity. The ones 1 used to keep .for a. little while at Tc A'nan gave me the idea that they were slow creatures, but one of these can skip about like a labibt, and I suspected it of eating all the food, so kept on putting in more and more, till,‘now they get about lilb of fish and a few extras. They do not take kindly to fish or meat at first; they often refused it When we bad them in cages for removal to the islands. So now I do not trouble them the first night, but the second evening I catch them and make them eat a few pieces, and the night after they‘ : will ieat it readily themselves. I knew they ate a few berries in their own-! homes, and, fearing jfisli;might be too 'monotonous, 1 rolled'■it :; iit' oatmeal; until how they

will eiat' p'otTidgo 'by Tt'solf.G In i tint day time they sleep huddled up together) thought a(' first they would fight, not;being.‘mates, but now. they-, scorn to die tfid 'best: of ,'frrendjh ? • .1 made a dark denh'for them, but they would not go into it, preferring to sleep behind it, uniter;the, log, where' I can see them shivering with the cold, and annoyed by the sandflies. The male is always much smaller than the female, and this one is moulting, which makes him look smaller still; so lie gets in a nook inside, and the female sits close to him and almost over him. as if to keep him warm. There is only a round ball of their brown drooping feathers in be seen, and perhaps the point of tiie long beak clear of flip- 1 feather* in so mb unexpected place. AVlieli distui bed. they! , lift j their, , sleepy-looking heads . from| under i jtlje 1 ; mantle of long feathprS’on .the''shfijilu-?. ers, where one would think them safe from sandflies,; but: I. often see dots of

blood around the .eyes'An'd 1 mouth, for the flies are very’ 1 insidious,: and'may bite severely without! [leavingi a ti-acej Whore ijthore were no sandflies they might thrive; much better than they do here; and. as they are so easily

enclosed;; it is a- wonder every • extensive garden has net a pair, for there is no doubt about their value, because they are specially fitted for finding the garden-pests that can so easily hide; from jabbering sparrows and other musical humbugs that oamo here under false pretences. /

The song of the roa is not very musical, but might become sweeter by association than our blackbirds and thrushes that, pay us in whistles for stealing our fruit; while roas are humble, and so harmless that they will not even scratch the ground, but probe it with their slender beaks, guided by scent and hearing in the night time, and then go to their holes at daylight, only to. come out again when the other workers are going to bed. There can be no harm in speculating about how these curious birds came to New Zealand, for there are no degrees in ignorance when nobody knows. Men may have done the mysterious distribution as' part of their business Imre, The fact of finding no geological proof only amounts to the silly man’s evidence when he offered to bring a dozen men to swear that thev did not see him steal a spade. We kpow that men are eminently fitted for such work,- and that they have been at it as long a,s we know anything about them; then, why not previously'? They brought lions and tigers to Rome about two -thousand years ago. There arc as wonderful ruins in Java as there are in Egypt, and some of Rajah’s keep pet- tigers there to-day. Then, why not formerly, when perhaps they brought them as far as the Romans did, and even across “Wallace’s line? ’ Even the son-shells benefit more than half the, living things by extracting the surplus lime that might poison the fish. Then, why should not the ablest have useful work to do for the community 1 Recent research suggests the probability of roas originating from birds that could (!y. That is a very good story, but there is not nearly enough of it, because they must have had many adventuies since they first flew up for a ski to lound some Old World mountain tops and got blown away to New Zealand. In the first place they found no enemies in the New Zealand scrub, or they would not have lost their wings and possibly there wore swift hawks about that made irhem afraid to show themselves until thev quite forgot about their wings, There might have been a long period of cold, when roas were the fittest to survive as long as any forest remained. There may have been a sinking of the land, when such mountaineers as roas would he the most lik'uv io survive with their varied food: and when the land rose again some of them, may have gone down relieved of enemies, and developed into moos in the fruitful valleys; for nature takes no heed of time in fitting her people for their surroundings. And even now no more perfect fit exists than that of the roas for their I

dominions. Their feathers are hairy at the rips and hard to wet or disarrange, yet soft and downy at the roots, amply warm and waterproof; and their skins are thick and oily, as if to defy tie everlasting damp of the shady forest, where they never fee! a gleam of sunshine. As their food is in the ground, on the steep hill sides, they have powerful legs for climbing with strong spurs on their heels f o let them go down steep and slippery places with case and safety. Their wing is no bigger than one of tiicr toe's, and naked with the exception of a row of little pen feathers, 'in mr-morv of the old quills of. long ago; while the tiny shoulder is useful as a rest for the beak when asleep. The wonderful beak is long, slender and slightly curved, but, unlike all others, with the nostrils at the very tip, which fit it for finding its food deep in the moss and roots, where it had no competitors. It has also cutting edges, which I was not iiwaie of until I saw them rasping a lath of the cage. It is white when alive and partly transparent when recently dead, showing a network of blood vessels, as if highly sensitive for feeling its food at the bottom of the holes. Those holes' are the size of a pencil when in earth, and Ain or sin deep, but when in moss are cone shaped, as if mads with the lieoo. and perhaps 10in deep, thus showing .bow acute their scent and hearing must be to locate some silent grub hi -worm down there. Only in a gar-d'-n in the evening or bright moon-

light can one be seen at work. Then it lifts its foot and PUs it down so ’gently, with its neck outstretched 1 jand ear forward, m its listen'lig attitude, that T am, almost . sure it defends 'greatly on , Its hearing for ; . finding its food; and it must 'be sharp to detect the small noßes of white . grub« and wire-worms li.n or 2-ii' underground, vet near grass land at ! r p o i_A.nau I have found their stomachs half-filled with them in the spring, and with booties and other things I never noticed elsewhere. It often rests the of its beak on. the ground, apparently for support, but it may be to scent the worm holes that come to the surface. Though their sight seems to be of little use to them, there is no doubt about their keen scent, because when a worm, or piece of meat is thrown near them they are aware of its presence at once, and touch' the ground here and there, coming nearer • and nearer until it is felt and taken - |op : I have oiten seen their tracks on the sandy beacnes at Te Anau, and was puzzled to know why there were only a few regular steps and then a ! deep • footprint and a long stride to 'the right or left; but now I think ijhey |get part of their food in the spring by cticcliing insects that fly 'close ;to the gro ind, especially in those? seasons when green beetles and the'like are a nuisance; so their eye sight is of some use to them, notwithstanding their blind manner. 1 find that they can change their food, like he woodlien, for I put in a big mold's head, boiled, a few nights ago. and they picked it clean, and now 1 only put m a. dish of promiscuous scraps, and they clean it up like little pig« so that they are very satisfactory to feed. Mr'Ness, of Port Chalmers, has kept a splendid one in perfect health for years, and J. promised to send him a mate for it, so that is what my captives are for, Throe-foot netting is quite sufficient- to enclose them, and. as there are hundreds of places already enclosed, it is a pity no one tries this way of dealing with pests in gardens, of which we hear so much now and them, with the value of sparrows, etc. It is not at all hopeless to domesticate them. Though they only lav their one great egg, yet they may br»ed twice ns fast as sheep or cattje, because I have found eggs in July and November; so that many of them may lay twice in the year under favourable circumstances. I am confident that if they were better known they would be highly valued bj gardeners, and become quite common, which would tie the best of all ways of saving them permanently. At all events, some one should try the experiment, and if authorised to do so I would send a pair to any one having a suitable place, and wil’ing to give them a little food in winter for of course they could do nothing in frost unless there were plantations.

Though they could make holes for themselves in the soft banks, yet 1 think, they very seldom do so, for there are always plenty to clioose from under the roots of trees where they can sleep during the day. For the nest they like rather a small hole with only one entrance, and in the driest place they car.. find. There they gather a few handfuls of dry fernP lives and scrub and lay their one great egg; and I think the male takes entire charge of ii,, and never leaves it umil it is hatched, hut I am not cjinte sure of this, for the female may /.sit a while at night and let him come out for food, hut I never found one on an egg, though I havei.seen dozens of nests in the last fourteen years. On a very few occasions J have found the female in the hole with him when sitting, but generally be is there alone, though at other times the adults are always in pairs. Even if I was to go up the spin in the dark to a nest I might disturb them and learn nothing; but the point of his endurance can be easily settled by those that keep them in gardens At the beginning of his task he is in good condition, but. when the egg is nearly hatched be is poor and quite stupid, whi e his mate is wide awake and fiighlable, so That they have just exchanged places since she laid that egg. I found tvo chickens just hatched, one of them no quite dry; yet there was not a scrap of eggshell in the nest, and I could not account for

it. The chickens were quite helpless, and uiiabjp to stand up, , s 0 they must have either absorbed food enough to last them until iliey .mild walk or the parents carried to them. When they are able to walk some of them at least are quite careless about staying with the old ones, for 1 have- found a tender little thing several yards away irom where the parents were asleep: and I found a tiny grey kiwi in a knot-hole near the beach, and my dog could not find the mother at all. So there are many question,s to Ik- asked about them, for they have some curious ways, and as yet we may not know half their history. From the size Of the egg and the shape of his body it would be impossible for him to. hatch twpjegjgr at one time, so that the big cggdhjUsb be a very old legacy. The voice Of the male is a highpitched rather musical scream, with a tremble and a sudden drop of several notes at the end of each call, which may be about two seconds duration, repeated five or six times. The female sings nearly the same tune, but in a much lower n’Ul hoarser tone, somewhat . ke rn-ar, ro-ar, with both syllables .accented, and a slight rest between.

When disturbed in their holes they crack their beaks like a snap of the fingers, and protest in a grunt or growl, but never use the beak for defence. In fact. I often take both l°gs in my hand before they seem to be aware of it. But long ago 1 caught one by the head, and with its powerful legs and strong sharp claws it wounded my hand and wrist severe-ly--poisonous wounds that were very slo v to heal.

tf cornered lit their paddock here their behaviour is quite courageous, especially that of the female, for s he will come towards my hand and stamp and kick, with such*energy that I take care to keep it out of the wav. I think she could easily defend herself against a ferret out in the opui, but. not in a bole, So whoever essays to keep them should provide a cl n w i tli a small entrance and a chamber inside without corners, so that poor roa would have room to use its legs. On one occasion I lound a little m:dc A. oweni hatching an A. australis eg' l ',. He could not have driven away bis big cousin, so there may be hybrids which would be somewhat like A. haastii. Every item is worth recording, because wo know so little about them. •

■yVheu a ‘roa passes by our tent at night and becomes' conscious of inruders it instantly alters its creeping step, a lid tramps along with such a heavy footfall that- I could not believe it to be a roa until I proved it several times t>v letting loose my dog. As their hearing is the ' keenest perhaps .that heavy tramp is “putting on i style’‘ 'from their poitt of view, where sight is not of much account.