The Nature Column.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 17, 9 July 1920, Page 6

The Nature Column.

(By "Student.")

A. PHILPOTT,

("Student" will be pleased to receive notes on any branch of Natural History. Observations on birds, insects, plants, etc., will be equally welcome. If using a pen-name, will correspondents please enclose real name and address. ) Dear Student. — In a recent issue of "The Digger," you had some interesting notes on the Shining Cuckoo. I was rather surprised that Mr Matthews should suggest that this bird may not be migratory after all, but may retire for the winter into some unfrequented part of the country. Such a supposition is in the highest degree improbable. The only districts in which the cuckoo would be at all likely to find unobserved retreat are 'the unexplcred portions of Fiordland in the South Island, and the Urewera Country in the North Island. In the case of Tuhoe Land, or Urewera, the Maoris would be sure to have noticed the bird's presence, but they have no knowledge -of it as a winter resident. Iu the south the block of country referred to is mostly high and snow covered, a very unlikely retreat. Nor does it seem advisable, at tbis jxmcture to set aside New Guinea as the winter home of the species. Though the bird may be quite rare in the coastal districts it may be common in the almost unknown interior. Comparatively little of the island has yet been explored, and even in districts that have been traversed by expeditions th_* presence of the cuckoo may easily have been unnoticed if, as is probable, it only gives voice during the breeding season. I note that Mr Anderson, from whom you quote, says that the cuckoo ceases to sing in January. This may he so in northern districts, hut near Invercargill I have heard the bird in the last week of Eebruary, — Yours etc.,

Nelson, 26th June, 1920. I am sure readers will be pleased to read the above. Mr Philpott is well known iu Southland as a keen naturalist. A close observer tells me that so far as he knows the Shining Cuckoo is not plentiful in Southland, though he had seen it in some localities. On the other hand, Mr R. Gibb in a note on this bird written some ten years ago mentioned that it was more pleatiful than the long-tailed variety. It is however, moce a hush bird, and does not usuahy frequent open spaces as does the Long-tail Cuckoo. This latter bird, with its strident cry is no doubt the more noticeabJe of the two birds. If the Shining Cuckoos did not migrate, but retired to some isolated spot it would of course follow that the cuckoo population of such place would he very greatly :'ncreased and this factor would tend to betray their presence. People who go to isolated places called thither by a 1 rve of nature, or in pursuit of business, are as a rule much more observant tflan ihe man in the street. Such a congregation would scarcely escape notice. In Graat Britain the old and young cuckoos depart at different times, and in New Zealand it may be that they arrive and depart in quite small flocks at different periods, during the hours when few people are able to observe them. Though generally considered a shy bird, these cuckoos have beev. taught by hand in the early part of the season. This seems to indicate a state of exhaustion, due probably to a long flight. Altogether the little evidence we possess all points to the Shining Cuckoo as being migratory. If several observers on the coasts all kept watch for land birds flying out to sea we might get evidence of migratory habits. Tbe light-house keepers in the old land have rendered some service in this direction, and in this Dominion the same class of men could probably afford valuable help in the same way. It might not be out of place here to point out to those who are not well acquainted with the cuckoo tribe that these birds are of world-wide distribution. While some are parasitic, others build nests of their own and rear young. The cuckoo family is distinguished by having a foot with two toes turned backwards and two forwards, a naked oil gland, and the after shafts to the body feathers wanting. The usual number of tail feathers is ten, one group, however has, only eight. The true cuckoos are very hawk-like in colour, form, and mode of flight, and it is probably owing to this resemblance rather than to a knowledge of its parasitic habits, that the cuckoo is so often mobbed by tlie smaller birds as if it was really a hawk.