Nature Notes

Conducted by Raimanu SEAGULLS and Terns: Your “Tropicalities” item of March last, “Hard Living,” moves me to say a few words about the sea birds seen in the Pacific, seagulls and terns.

The visitor to your Auckland office had the good story about the sea gulls which were flying on one wing around the Japanese fishing boats off Samoa, because they were carry ing their lunch under the other one!

It won’t hurt a good story if I men tion that there are no seagulls in Samoa, only terns.

For that matter, there are only terns in most parts of the South Pacific. The Australian silver gull reaches New Caledonia and the Lovalty Islands. Australians travel ling to Fiji on the Qantas flying boats used to get their last glimpse of these birds when they came down at Noumea. In Fiji and groups to the east you won’t find any gulls, but you will find plenty of terns.

Whai’s the difference, anyhow, the ordinary man will ask?

There is the difference in build which you will notice if you take a good look at them. The gull is characteristically more dumpy, with short neck, robust body, short tail and fairly heavy bill. The terns, generally speaking, are more slender and graceful. Their wings are usually long and tapering, and their tails longer than those of the gulls, in some cases very long, and usually more or less forked.

Then watch them in flight. You will not see terns soaring, but you will see the gulls, though they do it at a greater height than the petrels and shearwaters, which usually skim the surface of the ocean. The characteristic flight of the terns is rather jerky.

Which of the terns might be seen iround the Japanese fishing boats in Samoan waters? It is risky for me to answer, because I haven’t been to Samoa, and those who have writ ten about the islands are not agreed. I feel certain that along the reefs and near the shores there would be numbers of crested terns.

These birds do not flock, as a rule, but may be seen in ones and twos, or small groups, when fish are plentiful in reef waters.

They swoop from no great height and make a small splash as they take the fish from the surface. Be cause of their colour—white, grey and black —they are most likely to be mistaken for seagulls.

Away from settlement you might come across the Black-Naped Tern, a beautiful bird almost pure white, but with a narrow black line across the nape. Samoa has representatives, too, I believe, of the White Tern, which is all white except for its feet, bill and eyes, which are black.

Other terns not likely to be taken

for seagulls because of their gener ally darker colouring, but those seen around Samoa may be the Sooty Tern and the White-Capped Noddy.

Then there is the Common Noddy, which I mention separately because it nests in large colonies, building either on the ground or in bushes or low trees. Records of such colonies are wanted, if any reader cares to send them in. Both noddies are alike in general appear ance, that is, with a dark body, brown or grey, depending on the light in which you see it, and a white crown. They fly low over the water and are likely to be found in side reef waters and over the open sea.

Let us hope that the new fishing

operations around Samoa are not going to mean less fish for the terns! But then, from what we hear, the fish being caught there are the big ones, which are more likely to eat a tern, if they can get one, than to be eaten by one.

The International Plant Conven tion, which Australia ratified in 1952, has been extended to Papua and New Guinea, Norfolk Island and Nauru. Contracting govern ments to the Convention undertake to effectively prevent the introduc tion and spread of pests and diseases of plants and plant pro ducts, and to promote control measures. They also co-operate with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.