Pacific Nature Notes
p. 73 · Read in the full issue
Conducted By Raimanu.
No. 2.—Where Do The Waders Go?
To the average Australian there’s a good deal of interest in the old query—Where do the flies go in the winter time? The question loses much of its point in many of the Pacific Islands, because there are so few flies.
But there is a similar and equally puzzling matter—where do the snipe go ia the winter time? By snipe, most people mean the wading birds generally which are found in goodly numbers on the island beaches during the hot months, but are very scarce during the other six. t. ij u • . .i It would be interesting to know what the natives of other island groups think about it, if they think at all, but in Fiji this annual phenomenon gave rise to a proverb.
When a Fijian simply can't find something, he is likely to use this saying, which can be roughly translated as “You can't find a snipe’s gg * „ . „ . , Im using snipe here as the common word among Europeans in Fiji; and it fits in with the Fijian idiom too, as they have one term to cover quite a number of different species. For myself, I’ve yet to see a real snipe here; but there are plenty of plover, tatler, godwit and other tyP 6B - And just as we talk about looking for a needle in a haystack, so the Fijian talks about looking for a “dilio’s egg”. He knows that these
waders are common enough on the beaches for certain periods of the year; and equally uncommon for the rest of the time. He has found too, that no-one ever seems to catch these birds nesting. Hence no eggs; hence the proverb. there’s a bit more to it than Introduce the subject when your re sitting yarning in a Fijian y ou ’H find a variety of explanations of why there are no e BB s - Not far from Na Savusavu, man told. me that it was believed that the birds secreted their eggs In the yam gardens. He couldn’t e “ lain wh / n 0 ' have ever been fo £ nd the / c • T * , , , .
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the eggs hatch out into fish— probably the flying fish—which in turn change into the young dilio or snipe.
I’ve tried to tell them some of the established facts about bird-migration But apart from the fact that names like Siberia and Alaska mean little or nothing to most of those present, I rather think they believe I’m pull ing the long bow a bit. There are just a few to whom the truth is even more wonderful than the old tales.