NATURE NOTES

Taupo Times, Volume 11, Issue 66, 22 April 1953, Page 6

NATURE NOTES

CHARM GF TINGI - TINGI With the coming of the fifst frosts oi winter small flocks of white-eyes are appearing more dien in Taupo gardens. This littl© green bird, with yellowish olive head and neck and greyish white breast takes its eommon name of white-eye or silvereye from the silvery white ring round the eyes. It is a bird of many names A eommon Maori name 13 "tauhou,' meaning "stranger," dextvingt from the fact that it was only in 1856 that it first appeared in New Zealand. In Jnne of that year. large flocks appeared in the scrub along tihe coast it Waikanae, and Dr W. R. B. Oliver in his "New Zealand Birds-" says tha there is 110 reliable evidence that if exi sred in the country before that. The New Zealand species is found in south-eastern Australia and Tasman--ia, and there is no doubt that the birds that reached New Zealand in 1 856 were flocks that crossed the Tasman, possibly blown from Ausiralia, in the first instan.ee, by itrong gales. Taupo Ccuntry Namr A rame for the white-eye known to the Maori people of Taupo was ^tingi-tingi," a name nct recorded in WilJiam's Maori pictionary. Like the Tuhoe people's name of "pihipihi" this Taupo name was perhaps intended to eonvey tlie sound of the feird's plaintive repeated nofe as flocks move about in search of insects and aphis. Another Maori name "karu-patene," is made up of the Maori word "karu", eye, and the wor-d "patene," a Maori forin of the Bnglish "button," the compound ^foutton-eye" being descriptive of the sllver-ringed eye. The name was givefi to the bird in New Zealand from the way in which it cleared apple trees in Wellington of American blight, or woolly aphis. • ■ The tingi-ting'i is one of the most charming visitors to Taupo gardens, with its disarming tameness and half-sad repeated call-note. Some suet or fat, tied to the branch of a tree or shrub, will attract them, as will an apple similarly placed. Such an offering will make them regular winter visitors, and if the food is placed near a window their visits will prove fascinating to watch fhrough the giass, provicied no sudden movement of hands or arms are made. A small platform, above the reach of cats, is also suitable, and a container with a littl e water, in which sugar or honey is placed, will prove an added attraction to them. Mciiarch Butterflies. Some little time ago a Taupo resident watched speeimens of the be'autiful Monarch butterfiy fluttering about and noted that they ha d found found a swan-plant so ealled from the shape of the well-known seed pods, which •? ? I

- N v ' i had been grown especlally to provide food; for the caterpillars of this butterfiy, if any appeared. Last week it was found that ihe swanplant was liberally sprinkled with the attractively striped caterpillars of the Monarch butterfiy, black, yellow and white in cotour. By Friday last a small swan plant had had all its leaves dovcuiTci, and the large plant had lost most of its foliage. Meantime the frosts w'liich commenced on Wednesday last resulted in the caterpillars being found in the mornings 011 the ground in a torpid condition. Later in the day, warmed by the sunshine, they had again crawded up the tree and were teeding on the leaves. Altfcugh the Taupo winter is probably too severe to allow many, if any at all, to develop to the chrysalis stage, there is no doubt that the planting of swanplanfs in Taupo gardens will attract the large and beautiful Monarch butterfiy in the summer, for J they are not uncommon in the Bay of } Plenty and wander far afield. The caterpillar is harmless, the swanplant being ihe only garden plant . that it is known to eat. , ^ , '• T ; ' .:•/ ' jurXp ^ 11 ■ , II, I, ,,T 11