IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 1 September 1909, Page 13

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN* NEW. ZEALAND. (B~y James Dbummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) A kea-hunter, who spends a great deal of his time on sheep stations in the kea country amongst the aheep-kiilers of Canterbury, and who has caught hundreds of them, relates an incident to show that the evil name they ' have been given is not undeserved. He states that at 2.30 o'clock in the morning of March 16 last, when he was going -over a saddle, he came on to a place where about 40 halfbred sheep were camped. He noticed that one of them was turning .round and round, evidently in some distress. After a time it went past him, and he then saw that there was a kea on its back and another kea following on the wing, a few yards . behind. The bird on the sheep's back Jiad its wings outstretched and fluttering, as if a was balancing itself. There was bright moonlight, and it seemed to. the watcher that tnk bind had its beak buried in'i&e wool- They went along for -10" or 12 chains, until th«y reached an old watercourse. The watcher followed them dovoi, and saw the sheep lying on the - ground, with the bird oa its upper side. He ~ prepared a bait 'on the eneep, and presently the kea, which was a male, came up, stepped on to • the man's hand, and was" captured. There were several cuts on the sheep's back over the loins; where the kea had stood, about half an inch long, and of a triangular shape, the wool and skin having been torn off. When the bird , was killed and opened, in the presence of the manager of the station and another' wit^ess^-piecss of meat were-fouad/ 'in him. The evidence, although circumstantial, cofrobotfates- • that '"dbtarned by other investigators, who declare that th© kea -is guilty of sheep-killing. In the---face of what has been published, indeed, there is no room for any reasonable doubt in .the kea's favour. The kea-hunter who supplies this information believes that few keas under two" years of age worry sheep, and thai the young ones contract the abominable 11 -habit by feeding' on dead sheep, which have been 'snowed up or have met their deaths -in other ways., a kea starts killing, it never throws off the habit/ Havoc is wrought all the year round, even when berries are plentiful, which shows that the* birds' 'take, to sheepkilling in preference, and 'are not driven to it on account of the scarcity of the usual, food' supplies. My informant says that ■'on 'several' stations the kea's deathTollis fromlOOO to 1500 sheep every year. The "flying spider^* ' "spider fly," or " bee-killerj" has been the object of.- a ISoxth Canterbury correspondent's" "at-* tention lately. He says that this insect niay be seen frequently in the summer time, resting on a stone on a road or on a boulder in the river bed, quietly, waiting for a fly. When one unwarily comes .-along, it gives chase. In a short time, it is back on the boulder again, holding its victim in its long legs. It thrusts its swo*d-like beak into the soft part of the fly's back. The sword goes right up to the hilfc, and the pirate sucks out the liquid,' rejects' the carcase, and ■ then seelrtf' fox 1 ' another victim. It is very strong, and its legs ar* furnished with sharp spurs, by which it holds its victim tightly. The correspondent, who has captured many spseimens, states that they 'nearly always seek to thrust their ©words into his hand. They cannot do this in the hard, inner part of the hand, and he has not allowed them to try in the soft places, as he concludes, from the* <juicknesa with which death, overtakes "flies after the thrust, that a poison is injected. On one occasion lie placed a " spider-fly " in a box with a glaes cover in company with a red wasp. Tlie- red wasps, he states, feed entirely on spiders, which tl*ey kill by stinging them with a sting carried at the end of the body. The " spider-fly " and the wasp took stock of each other for a' moment, and then went enthusiastically into the fray. -The "spider-fly" could not* pierce_ the wasp's hard covering, and it was joo active to give the wasp an opportunity to , use its sting. There was much clinching, hugging, ah§~ rolling over, and then they bj*£ke awarr., - neither caring to renew hos"tilitaes. 1 TJjey .seemed to know .at once each other's special tactics, and took the utmost pi^ecnutions to avoid them. When they were liberated they flew- off vi different directions, neither, evidently, having a.ny wish to meet- ajrain. The correspondent'believes that the "spider-fly" would have" been victorious if it had not been for the wasp's protective covering. Mr E. B. Iza-rd, of Stoke, Nelson, says "that he finds the morenork owls very tame in his district, and he often gets "Within 3ft of one when it sits at dusk on his picket fence. On-s evening; latflv, when he was standing at" dusk in the ■middle of his drive under the branches of an apple tree, he suddenly heard a whining noise, and felt the very lightest of touches on the top of his hatT Putting; up his hand, he just touched his " morepork" friend a-s it swooped off, probably more astonished than he was. -"Your Nature notes internet me -preatlv," writes Mr T. Collins, from Waihi. "When I first started poircr to school, after some years at a private one. the head master was a.<reat naturalist. and on the afternoons while the girls had their sewing lessons the boys used to Tiave an obiect lesson in natural history, and Jearj the class, division, order, and family of the various animals, and the particular localities in which they were I 4o be found. So interested .were the boys | thajv I remember that most books taken out of the school library were ones dealing with natural history, and our greatest ambition as boys was to be a naturalist or a great traveller, like Livingston* 5 . "For the remainder of mv school dpys I was with many different teachors. but although there were alwaye natural his- i

tory charts on the wall I never remember another teacher giving lessons on the subject. That 'is now over 24 years ago, and. reading your Nature notes brings those lessons back to me as vividly as if I was just -receiving them." Mr Robin Kemp has sent me> a very interesting note from Long Sutton, Lang< port, Somersetshire, England. Two years' ago, while he was in the Hokianga district, in the Auckland province, he obtained the skins of four quail, which differed so much from the typical Australianswamp quail that he thought they must be specimens of the New Zealand quail. He took them to England with him with the object of settling the point. -He now states that they can only be referred to the Australian quail, which was introduced into New Zealand about 40 years ago. While there is no doubt thet they are descendants of the rnnported birds, however, they show a good deal . of divergence from the typical Australian -quail. He was impressed with this when he compared them with the series in the British Museum, -and still more when he compared them with a fine series of Australian quail in" -the possession of Mr Matthews, o£ Australia who is now in London. When Mr Matthews saw the Hokianga specimens., he said »at once that they were not the typical Australian .form. \Mr Kemp believes that it is likely that some admixture of blood has taken place "in .^regard - to ther introduced Australian swamp quail :' " either the remnants -of the New Zealand: quail, or possibly a few individuals oi-'the^ other Australian quail (Cotmrnix peftfc*ralis), which -was introduced about 40 years ago, but .which failed to establish ' itself. Mr Kemp adds that time could be spent advantageously " in studying the : ' changes -of characteristics of introduced - forms of birds. It would be interesting to follow up tlie case of the quail, but lie points.,out that to do this it would, be necessary to obtain a t&rge series of both sexes at varying ages and from different localities, as individuals amongst quail vary greatly. In 6kylaTks there are very marked individual variations, due to age, sex, rainfall, and other causes. 1 A correspondent in Auckland states that some time ago he was an interested observer of s novel performance. A young fledgling sparrow was perched on the top of a cypress, fluttering its wings and chir- j ruping in the manner adopted by greedy .] young spaarows when they are being fed ■ by their parents. A starling had taken ' the place of the mother sparrow, and was I .forcing a large worm down the throat of | 'the hungry and willing sparrow/" The j worm was 1 partly swallowed by the youngbird, but the final effort was unsuccessful, ajJid the worm fell to the ground. The i starling immediately, flew down^ seized the ! worm, and made another effort to cram j tit down the throat of the fluttering and i chirruping' sparrow.. It was still unsuc- : cessful, liowevar, and it ultimately flew ; away with the worm. The correspondent ! add? that a fairly large number of star- \ lings and sparrows make their homes and rear their families on his buildings, but he doss not suggest that either species have adopted parasitical nesting habits. Some years ago a member of his family brought home a nest of newly-hatched goldfinches. They were placed in a cage with a female canary, which was innocent of ever having laid an egg. She at once took cha.rge of the young goldfinches and reared them all. One of them mated with another member of the canary family and produced four young mules.