STUDENT OF BIRDS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 219, 3 September 1943, Page 5

STUDENT OF BIRDS

An Appreciation of a New Zealand Observer of Genius

— | Two talks about wild life on Stewart Island were given by

L. E.

RICHDALE

from 4YZ this

" week, and a photograph of Mr, Kichdale appeared in our issue of August 20. This estimate of t os

|! fus work is Dy &. L. COMBS. she,bird photographs here are by Mr. Richdale.

"4 ENIUS is an infinite capacity for taking pains." This remark of Carlyle’s is only’ true if it be allowed that the pains are not painful. The chief characteristic of genius is an absorbed curiosity which, as far as the feelings go, becomes a delightful compulsion. Darwin had it in regard to his great theory. Fabre evinced it by being for 80 years spellbound by insects. Tolstoy’s genius was fascinated by the minutest details of human behaviour. * * * "From May the seventh to the twenty-second inclusive I arrived at the nest before daybreak and did not leave till after dark. It was rather strenuous at first but .. . I was sorry when the vigil ended."

Thus L. E. Richdale. The thing that absorbed him was the growth of a Royal Albatross chick, the shares its parents took in tending and feeding it, its weight before and after meals, some of them enormous. Circumstances permitted him to give 16 days to intensive observation of all that these three birds were doing. His very detailed notes began on May 7, 1938, and finished on July 13. What would have been a purgatory to nearly all was to his unique intelligence an entrancing pastime. One says "unique" because scientists like L. E. Richdale happen along at the tate of a mere handful in a decade. Their toil is not ambitious, for they know that they are most unlikely to receive recognition and quite as unlikely to profit materially. They are fairly lucky if they gain the means necessary to the pursuit of their ends. ne * %* R.' RICHDALE has a_ complete equipment; for the work he has chosen. He haf$ a passion for facts, not the facts that do well enough for the common run of us, but the exact facts of measurement and of precisely recorded observations. He tightens down on these facts in a manner that reveals’ the scrupulous mind of the born scientist. Fancy is rigorously disciplined. Souls were given to the penguins of the holy Mael even if they were small souls. Mr. Richdale stops short of this. He does not know if his albatrosses have souls, and he will not be tempted into inferring them, though, with the discerning truth of an artist he portrays their various emotions. How much "Nature Study" is vitiated by projecting human characteristics into animals it would be disquieting to estimate. * % NEw ZEALAND breeds good Rugby players and New Zealanders have a justifiable pride in the prowess of tens é

of thousands who play the game. New Zealand, thanks to the selected stock from which they have stemmed, produces first-class minds, but there is no pride in this, and there should be. A little country like Norway with barely twice our population has fostered a literature of which. the world takes notice. How? Norway was given the writers, but it provided a national public

for them. The first trustworthy indication that New Zealanders appreciate mentally gifted fellow New Zealanders will be given when it takes measures to prevent their’ export. It seems to me that there is a danger of L. E. Richdale being exported. In its own sphere his mind has qualities comparable to the Norden bomb sight in another. Both applied to their respective purposes have a delicate precision, uncanny to those who watch them at work without being able to comprehend their way of working. It is round people like this bird scientist that the nation’s confidence in its culture should be built. They would put us on the map and the respectful attention they gained would fortify national self assurance. It is odd that our neighbour, Australia, should have this assure ance even to excess, while we continue to lack it. % % x ‘THERE is entertainment in Mr. Richdale’s monographs, enhanced rather than diminished by the feeling that he is giving you the real stuff unadulterated by the arts of salesmanship. Take his account of nesting penguins. Two birds who could be connubially happy are intruded upon by a third, a dour and doltish suitor, who perturbs and upsets, who "destroys the atmosphere." When, for the sake of the precious incubating egg this third bird, a perfect nuisance, was removed, "the female hurriedly jumped upon a rock above the male, then down alongside him, and the full, ecstatic ceremony tool: place. The male stood up and showed the egg, causing the female to push her head under him to view and caress it. It was quite evident that No, 3 had been dominating the situation, but he did not return again to the nest." , ee * * UCH moments are. perhaps, the nigh lights of the born observer. He deserves them if, as L. E. Richdale almost exultantly writes. he has had and cherished "the unique opportunity (for eight weeks), of camping within a few feet of. three different species of nesting penguins and c: recording all their movements." This from daw.. to dusk on 56 successive days! But the incredible patience! Each can only give it to pursuits th t suit his particular gifts .nd only genius gives it in full measure. And that is why this untiring strdent should be prized by the country to whose lot he hag fallen,