WHITE HERON SHOT

Hokitika Guardian, 18 July 1933, Page 6

WHITE HERON SHOT

TAIEPvI DISTRICT’S LOSS. An unfortunate act which may 'have beep due to carelessnes s or, and this is more •'likely, to wanton destructiveness, has robbed, the Taid'i of an interesting visitor and a very rare bird—a white egret, which as more commonly known as the white heron, or, to the -.Maoris, kotuku (states the '‘Otago Daily Times”). The white heron was first observed in New Ze> Ja-nd; by ..Captain Cook during hi s second voyage, . and subsequently it was footed in various- parts but it was always ~>a jrape bird------About .1870 a surveyor named Moeller discovered its only, known -breeding - place... in . New 'Zealand on' the 'batiks of the- Waitarigituna.j;treani, near/ ©kafito, ;' • The New Zealand sub-species' differs from the Australian form in being contfkletjably larger,; the - wing measurement 'being ‘ -oboufc 43’? centimetres in the .New 'Zealand form against 38:5 in the Australian. Stray pairs of individual birds have been seen in all. parts of the North. 'South, phriham, ,a.nd 'Stewart. Islands, but s-o seldom does the white heron appear in any locality that “rare as the kotuku” has passed into a proverb among the Maoris, and, in the North Island, it is said to occur only once in a lifetime. In this -case the bird was found headless on a fence line. It h a d been seen about Waihola for a year, and, a s the head wris missing, it had probabyjy been shot.