Pacific Nature Notes

Written for "PIM" by Charles Barrett, FRZS

Robber-Crabs

DOUBT has been cast upon an old natural history story, a perennial of the Pacific, in which the big robber crab figures as a climber of tall coconut palms, whose fruits it shells by inserting a claw into the “eye” and breaking off small pieces as easily as one might chip a boiled egg.

Recently, a zoologist with a fair know ledge of crustaceans —gained chiefly in museums, however —declared that it was impossible for the robber-crab to climb in the manner described by some of the early missionaries and other observers.

But Birgus latro has been caught—by a camera—in the act; and really deserves the popular name, “coconut-crab,” by which it is widely known among the islanders.

Though they do not use shells as port able homes, coconut-crabs really are modified hermit crabs—land hermits, which need no protection for the abdo men, since, unlike that of the normal hermit crab, it is not soft and fleshy, nor is it twisted. Rather uncanny creatures, clever, and endowed with amazing strength, for their size. Their pincers are formidable weapons. A robber-crab has been known to escape from a wooden cage by breaking the thick bars with its pincers: and, using them as a pair of pliers, to snap stout wire-netting with ease.

As for climbing, the robber is a cham pion. When Professor Wood Jones was carrying out his zoological researches at the Keeling-Cocos Islands, he observed the ways of Birgus, “a very remarkable creature in every way,” and was impressed by its wonderful power of climbing. The only “cage” from which it could not escape was an old oil drum. It seemed to prefer the driest parts of the islands for its home, and was never seen near the water.

I possess many published notes on the robber-crab, and none more interesting than those of the Rev. W. Wyatt Gill, a missionary in the South Pacific and New Guinea nearly a century ago; he was working in the Hervey Group in 1851. Gill was a keen observer of wild life, and the robber-crab intrigued him. He describes its method of husking coconuts; and gives a vivid picture of hundreds of the un canny creatures asleep in loftv trees: rows of crabs hanging from branches by their sharp pointed claws; a sight I have not seen, but would travel far to see.

Robber-crabs hibernate for several months. At the end of a fairly deep hole in the ground, a cavity is formed, a snug retreat for the digger, but not too safe —for the natives, who regard them as good tucker, know how to locate the hibernating “robbers” of their coconut palms.

The Cuscus

AN American airman who served in New Guinea told me that the “cutest little animal” he had seen was the cuscus.

He reckoned that, if he could get one alive to the States, it would become as famous as Australia’s “Teddy Bear.” And he knew the koala, having visited Koala Park.

The cuscus is a favourite of mine; but it will never be a general favourite. Its habits and its manner preclude that pos sibility—also the unpleasant, clinging odour peculiar to this quaint, round headed phalanger, which gave rise to stories of monkeys existing in the far north of Queensland.

I have met with cuscuses both on Cape York Peninsula, and in New Guinea; and

also made friends with tame ones, in clined at first to be surly, and suspici ous of a strange human who pointed a camera at them. But one youngster, pet of a Papuan girl, posed beautifully in a breadfruit tree; he was rewarded with a generous slice of pawpaw.

The cuscus of North Queensland is closely related to a New Guinea species— the spotted cuscus, if not merely a geographical variety. It is restricted to the tropical scrubs of Cape York Pen insula, its farthest south being Iron Range.

The cuscuses, which are large possums with round heads and small ears, range from Timor and Celebes to the Solomons, besides being represented in tropical Aus tralia. The spotted cuscus inhabits New Britain and the Admiralty Islands, as well as the “mainland” New Guinea. Male and female differ greatly in colour pat tern, the former’s brown back being spotted with white, while the female lacks these markings. The same difference pre vails among Australian specimens. There are exceptions to the rule, however, for the females of Phalanger maculatus, on the island of Waigiou, are said to be spotted like their mates. My travels have not yet taken me to Waigiou, that delect able isle to the south of Ceram; but it must be visited by any naturalist who would complete his knowledge of the cuscus possums in their native haunts.

That they could ever have been mis taken for monkeys seems strange, for there is little of the monkey about any of the cuscuses, apart from round head and cheeks, and the prehensile tail. In their actions and their habits, these in dolent, woolly haired marsupials are more like sloths than monkeys. By the way, the native bear or koala, originally, was called the “New Holland sloth,” because of its indolent ways, for it bears no re semblance at all to a sloth.

Mynahs In The Pacific

BIRDS more dapper, and adaptable than mynahs, there may be, but as a colonist, the Indian bird has few rivals. Introduced into Australia many years ago, it has become a familiar bird in the coastal areas of the eastern States: and in Queensland it is regarded with favour as a destroyer of insect pests in the sugarcane districts.

On numerous islands of the South-west Pacific, including the Solomons, New Caledonia. Fiji and Hawaii, it has become established. Usually it frequents coconut plantations. The Mynah came to Hawaii in 1865, when a number of the noisy birds was liberated on the island of Oahu. They soon settled down, and multiplied, and now are as abundant as other introduced species, according to latest advice.

Mr. Francis X. Williams, of the Ex periment Station, Honolulu, and Mrs, Williams, adopted a fledgling mynah, which they named “Mike,” and reared him. They carefully observed his be haviour and noted personal peculi arities —made a close study, in fact, of “Mike”: also of other untamed birds of his species. And the story is told in a privately printed book entitled, “Mike the Mynah.”

The Mynah—it is native to India and Afghanistan—l believe, ranks high as an insect destroyer, though the Japanese beetle may not be on its menu. Pro tected as a useful bird in Queensland and on some of the islands, it is not every where regarded with approval. Thus an American reviewer of the Mynah” observes that, in some distant islands, it

“thrives only too well,” and its intro duction into the United States has been wisely prohibited. Mynahs, it must be admitted, will eat fruit, and seeds, as well as insects; but, in my experience, they are generally beneficial birds, and the many that frequent my home garden are welcome visitors.

Among The Wasps

YEARS ago I corresponded with Mr.

Williams, being interested in his re markable studies of tropical wasps and their hosts and associates. While engaged in foreign field work for the Ex periment Station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association, he had opportunities, apart from his regular work, of observing the habits of wasps and other insects. The results are recorded in Bulletins, valued by all entomologists who study wasps.

Among the countries visited by Mr.

Williams, were the Philippines, Queens land, and Ecuador. That a scientific en tomologist can find bird observing also worth while, pleases a bird lover whose interest extends to insect life, and be yond. The social insects —ants, bees and wasps—have always interested me, but the habits and life histories of the solitary species are as fascinating as those of the socialists.

Mole-crickets are chief victims of some

of the parasitic wasps (larra) studied by Mr. Williams; who found that, in many tropical countries, where two or more kinds of Lara occur, and one of these is considerably larger than the other, at least two species of mole-cricket, also differing in size, exist in these lands, serv ing as prey, “large species for large, and small species for small wasp species.’’

This state of affairs pertains in Queens land and the Philippine Islands, also in Para, Brazil; a wonderful provision of Nature, knowledge of which would have delighted Pabre, the inimitable observer, who missed a world of wonders by stay ing always at home, though he did find a world of little lives in his own neigh bourhood, and earned an honoured title, The Insects’ Homer.

Among natural enemies of the Jap anese beetle, that very destructive pest, are certain wasps which prey upon them in their larval stages. We owe such dis coveries to the entomologists, who no longer are laughed at as “bug hunters.”

The New Caledonian Government is sending Dr. Ragusin. director of the Gaston Bourret Laboratory attached to Noumea hospital, to study the methods and lay-out of Fiji’s famous leper colony.

He will be accompanied by an architect.

At present Noumea’s leper colony on Ducos Peninsula is housed in old build ings once used by those Communards of the 1871 Commune who were sentenced to confinement in a fortified area. They included such famous people as Louise Michel, the so-called “Red Saint of Nineteenth Century Socialism,” and the Count de Rochefort who. with six com nanions, made his escape to Sydney from here by arrangement with the skipper of an Australian schooner. The native leper colony is in a valley half a mile away from the white colony. There is no doubt that New Caledonia could learn a good deal from the up to date methods used at Makogai.