CORRESPONDENCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 86

CORRESPONDENCE.

A. portion of J. Shore's letter appears beiow. I should like to get some exao' information on the cuckoos ; but it must be observations made in New Zealand and in recent years. I have spoken to a rood many who are supposed to know something about our New Zealand birds, but have eean 110 one who has any very definite information about them. I suppose tie gentleman who knows as much about them, as any one is Dr Fulton, of Dunedin, who has made a special study of them, and has wriiten a paper which was read before tho Now Zealand Institute. Tn his letter, Mr Shore regrets if any remarks he made on other correspondents were taken amiss, and he thinks another correspondent was rather hard on him. I don't think any correspondent need imagine any slight w ir tended or jriven by any writer in these columns. Sometimes a correspondent may state .his opinions for or against any stateimnt in a rather em-ph-Uio way — what enthusiast does not? — but knocks must be given and taken . in gooJ humour. I think I must ask Willie Soper, of the Ba ciutha District Hijri School, to come up :-nd help mo to find that grub he sent me, and bring another with him. It left Balclutha, I suppose, in a nice little hexahedron cardboard box, but the box and contents arrived as if they had! come from a " wet" district instead of a " dry" one. I put the grub by, stJely as I thought, i but he has disappeared, and, I imagine, is foraging for " tucker"' among my books and papers. I hope he will find them " dry " tack. I am going to have another look for hit:, however. Robin sends an interesting letter on the "eand wasp." I shall be jrlad to get a bett-:r specimen and olso the pupa. "J '« letter, as usual, ie interesting. But h there any connection between the colour of a bird and of its egg? I know nothing of these matters. The centipede came to hand. It's a " brute" from Australia, I think. Nellie Bishop sends me a capital letter. I am sure that Nellie and her companions must have been "both interested and de- '. lighted in watching developments. Supposing you try, Nellie, to hatch out some butterflies' eggs and note down details day by day when possible. If Nellie sends me one of the butterflies I'll try to get ifc named. I should like many more letters of the sort Nellie sends. The specimens sent in by " Scrub,' Woodhaugh, and John Ferguson, Waitati, I'll get named, all being well, for next week. I must again ask correspondents not to give unnecessary trouble. One correspondent this week sends a letter in lead pencil and rather indistinct at that; while another writes a short note on the ineiae of the envelope — paper scarce? And this wa» one of my young correspondents, too. I'll gladly go to any trouble, if time permits, to get information, but I oannot rewrite letters, and I do not care to ask ihe linotype operator to try his eyes and patience, especially as he works at nigh pressure under artificial light. "The Elbow." The Taieri. Dear " Magister," — " J.," Rimu, told yon the heather was the home of the cuckoo. Well, if that is so I was far 22£ years in the home of the cuckoo. Where I was brought up I could not look in any direction without s-eeing heather. I hay» walked 33 miles straight on end, and could pluck heather all the way, and I could have gone 33 miles more and tb«>n not been at the end of it. Now. Sir, I can assure you I have heard the cuckoo cry on the wing 20 times for once while or> its feet. After 22% years in the heather hilla of Scotland, and eight years on the game-keeping staff in th* forests of England, I must have been » poor observer of birds if I had not known that » cuckoo cried on the wing, the most common bird of all birds that do so. I would like to ask is there any bird living tha-t does not cry on the wing at some time or other. I very much doubt if there is one. I couldl write you a long l&tter on the cuckoo and its habits, but it might not be interesting to your re-aders, so I will draw to a clo?e this time. — I am, etc., J- S. 1 Fortrose. February 15, 1908. • Dea.r " Magister," — I am sending you a. specimen in tin box of the sand wasp. This very interesting insect I have not seen mention made of in your columns so far yet. The insect burrows rather a large tunnel in the banks. This tunnel extends sometimes for a considerable depth before it branches off into a number of cells, something similar to a person's hand, the thumb and fingers being the cell*, the arm, the tunnel leading thereto. In each of these cello it lays am egg, and to provide food for the young ones it drags in, chiefly spiders, after stinging them into insensibility. The -wasp does not kill them, thereby retaining the spiders' freshness for its young to eat. I have vre.tchecl him several times hunting for his prey, darting hifher and thither among the graes. As soon as he discovers Mr Spider he pounces on him a-t once. The spider shrivels up into a ball, aa it were. Then commences the drag home. As <<i»e wasp may be some considerable distance from his den it must be tedioua work for him, but he sticks to his task, and finally accomplishes it, going backwards, and dragging a big water spider several times its own size. One would- think it would be a difficult matter for the wasp to locate its den. I may say that some years ago I sent the pupae of this insect to " Dinornis," of the Witness," who kindly sent me very full particulars, also the scientific name., which I forget. The specimen I am sending you is a, poor one, as I found it dead, bub later on, if you wish, I will send you a better one, either that or the pupse. — I am, etc., Robtn. P.S.— I should have liked to reply to " 013 Timer" and others Te the jackass, but as it wculd encroach too much on your space* and &a you say the discussion on thi»

ttbuxtom bird is practically closed, it must be left in the meantime. Catlin's River. Bear " Magister," — The fantail question is not easily settled. We must take the established order, the habit of nature. If we can grasp it there is no deception there. In , reply to "Ornithologist" (also " Curator ") on : the fantail, he e-nys, without any question, ; the black and the pied fan tails are distinct species, but he gives no reason why he says so. He also seys he never knew them to ; cross pair. To cross pair is to breed to destruction. If suoh. breeding was among the fans no white man would ever have Eeen » black fantail; perhaps not a pied either. Now, '" Magister," some of your younger correspondents will not understand breeding to destruction, and how they would become scarcer, so I will tell them. Should 20 black female fans and 20 pied male fans be put on an island thait suited them, they would breed and do well. So the second year they ■would breed and do well, but only the 20 imported; the offsprings would be fruitless, so, should the life of a fantail be seven years, in 16 years there would be no fans left. If such breeding were allowed, could we say Nature was beautifully arranged? There are many people in New Zealand who know that these two varieties of fans breed, even people who •re not cose observers of Nature. Only birds of a type pair. " Curator " says the eggs are also clearly distinguishable. This I quite believe. The colour of a brrd has to do witßi the colour of its eges ; for instance, the poultry have their shades of colour. The black hen has a much whiter egg than the ■white hen; and the white hen is much ■whiter than the buff hen or spaugled hen — birds of a variety, eggs of a variety. I am sending you a centipede. sin x |in in length. A boy brought it to me. He says it was got in a. case of plums sent from Duuedin. It •was alive when got. " J," Rimu. Highcliffe School, February 17 1908. Dear " Megister," — On the groundsel growing in the paddocks we found some caterpillars, which we took to school and put in a box. These caterpillars are of a black oolour, with yellow stripes from end to end. Their body, about an inch long, oonsiete of 10 rings covered with short hairs in little bunches, like the bristles in a bush. Their feet, numbering 18, axe placed in pairs •11 along the under part of their body. After keeping them for about three weeks they spun their cocoons. After staying in this stage for about three weeks they turned info the chrysalis stage, in which they stayed for about three or Jour more weeks, after which they changed into the butterfly, which laid eggs in different places in the box. These butterflies' bodies were- of the same colour as the caterpillars, with black wings and white spots on them. From this experiment we found all the stages of the caterpillare. The first one w»s the caterpillars, second the cocoon, and third and fourth the chrysalis and the butterfly. — I am, etc., Nellie Bishop. ,