Pacific Nature Notes

Written for "PIM" by Charles Barrett, FRZS

Sea-Roving Seaweed

THE red seaweed described by a cor respondent evidently is the elegant little sea-rover known to science as Asparagopsis armata. The generic name, of course, refers to the graceful sprays, which are rather like small shoots of asparagus; while armata was given be cause some of the plant’s branches bear inch-long branchlets beset with barbs— they are for use as hooks, not as ‘“spears”.

When I was editor of the “Victorian Naturalist”, the late Professor A. H. S.

Lucas, of Sydney, sent me an interesting paper on this remarkable seaweed, which nas crossed the sea from Australia to Europe. Discovered in 1854 by Dr. Harvey, author of a splendid work on Australian Seaweeds, the Red Rover (Asparagopsis) occurs on the west, south, and east coasts of Australia, and also in Tasmania and New Zealand. It made its first ap pearance in European waters early in the Nineteenth Century; the pioneer plants having migrated, perhaps, from New Zealand.

Its barbed branchlets give the plant its wonderful power of sea-roving. At first merely hooks, as Professor Lucas ex plains, when attached they grow into strongly adhesive discs; these fix the whole branchlet, which sends out vegeta tive shoots and is easily removed from the parent plant. Waves can easily detach the new individual from its new sub stratum; and should its hooks reach a mass of green seaweed growing on the hull of a ship, it may make a long sub marine voyage.

Seaweed collecting, once very popular, went out of fashion years ago. But there are still a few enthusiasts, some in the Pacific realm; and occasionally a new marine “weed’ is discovered. The student of fishes has some interest in seaweeds, for many kinds of fishes feed upon them.

The beautiful little chrome-yellow surgeon-fish, common about Hawaiian coral reefs, is said to subsist entirely upon filamentous seaweeds. The lauhau has mouth parts adapted for feeding upon algae, and certain species, abundant on the reefs, form its staple food.

Sargassum or ‘Gulfweed” occurs in all warm seas, and one of the very numerous species (there are well over one hundred), is commonly used for food by Japanese fishermen, I believe.

Flying Fish

DO flying fish fly? The question has been answered a thousand times in the negative; but many people be lieve that the beautifully coloured, streamlined fishes that rise from the sea and go zooming through the air, do fly flap their wing-like fins. This is a fallacy, as anybody who has closely ob served flying fishes “on the wing” surely will agree. The fins certainly are vibrated rapidly when the fish leaves the water, which is flicked by the tail in the take off.

Despite the assertion of some naturalists that the flying fish does actually fly, I hold the contrary opinion. Fin vibration is not true flight; and the flying fish has been well described as an “aqua-aero glide”. I have watched them often enough, from the deck of a steamer, to know that these fishes, do appear to fly.

Their two-inch long wings are vibrated during the “flight”, and the tail may be used as a propeller when it touches the water as the fish goes over a swell; this has been noticed by many observers.

The few records available indicate that

flying fishes are unable to make long sustained ‘’flights”. They stay in the air from about a dozen seconds to little more than half a minute, and the dis tance covered mayoe several hundreds of yards only guess measurements, of course, are possmle. It would be interest ing to have the views of readers who may nave paid special attention to the flying nsn as a flier, or a glider!

“Lost” Parrots

A BRISBANE bird man is anxious to know whether any of the Cyanor hamphus parrakeets still exist—not New Zealand species, but those once fairly aoundant on small and remote islands. So far as my knowledge goes, these forms are either extremely rare, or extinct.

The Society Island parrakeet was re ported as extinct more than sixty years ago while the Ulietea species, restricted to one isle of the group, has not been re corded for a century. The Lord Howe Island parakeet long since disappeared completely; extermination has also been the fate of other species; in all, six are extinct; while such forms as the Kerma dec Island parrakeet are very rare.

Happily, the red-fronted parrakeet ( Cyanornamphus novae zeelaiidiae), though it may be scarce on the mainland, has found sanctuary in island reserves— notably, Little Barrier Island, which I plan to visit next year.

One of the “lost” island parrakeets is said to have been fairly plentiful until a collector of bird-skins visited its territory.

When he departed, if reports be true, few of the small birds remained; the num ber taken had been too heavv to allow lo_ recovery.

A pity it seems, now, that many pairs of these parrots were not taken into captivity before they became rare. Avi culturists may have bred them success fully, as they have certain Australian parrots threatened with extinction. It may even have been possible, in time, to liberate small numbers on their home islands —to restock such parrotless places as lone Antipodes Isle, which once had its own Cyanorhamphus.

New Zealand Giants

THE extinct giant birds of New Zealand are in the news again. “Fossil” moa footprints were recently dis covered: impressions made in clay by the huge feet of a Dinornus which died, per chance, not more than two or three centuries ago. An important discovery, but not the first bird of its kind. I possess a photograph, taken many years ago, of the footprints of a moa, on the margin of the Manawatu River.

Feathers of the wingless giants have been found in river banks and in a cave or two. Bushels of moa bones have been dug up in various parts of the Dominion.

An American expedition reaped a rich harvest of specimens, and their study may increase the number of known species of Dinornis, Emus, or some other genus. Specialists are generous in their classification schemes; and many kinds of moas have been described and named.

Five or six are included in one genus alone.

The discovery of a living moa—a highly improbable event—would cause almost as much stir as did the finding of Tutankhamen’s Tomb in the Valley of the Kings. It would certainly be as im portant in the eyes of naturalists.

Several perfect moa’s eggs have been found. One, known as the “Ettrick Egg”,

is preserved in the Otago Museum. It was found in 1911, appropriately enough in the district known as Moa Flat, of which Etterick is the township. The egg of a moa may be as commercially valu able as one of the Great Auk, for all I know; but an old collector of “natural

Communications from Nature students in the Pacific Islands are welcomed by our contributor—Mr.

Charles Barrett, “Maralena,” Mays bury Avenue, Elstemwick S 4, Victoria.

curios’' once offered me a few fragments of eggshell, guaranteed to be “dinkum Dinornis”, for a guinea. Just where they xi^ the o * d man couldn’t say; but they came from New Zealand, all right To me they looked like flakes of an ostrich egg. In any event, they were not purchased.