EVERLASTING TEETH

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 434, 13 December 1918, Page 3

EVERLASTING TEETH

(Written specially for the -'Times.") " What are those'?" asked a little Australian girl who is visitiag me. Tho "those" were five nicely rounded, highly polished pebbles of various colours lying on my desk. They were about the size of potatoes, —not the magniiicent tub ts for which Pukekohe and the neighbourhood are so justly celebrated, but potatoes about the size of those that can be grown outside the radius in which the "Times " circulates. Five smooth stones was just the number David took when he went out to make an end of Goliath's boasting. And It is <ju te on the caids that my five pebbles wu - e ou active service about the same time a3 David's " These, my dear," I replied, " are bird's teeth," " You silly," she said,-there is not a great deal of reverence about young Australia — " Birds don't have teeih." But she was wrong. Birds do have teeth, though they do not carry them in their mouths. If they had not they would suffer from indigestion and iose their amiability, ju~t iike human beings. Scattered about all over New Zealand these rounded pebbles may be found. Sometimes they are found lying on the surface after a scrub fire, sometimes they are not seen till turned up by the plough. Generally found singly they are .sometimes discovered in groups of from a dozen to thirty. The first case is where the bird has lost a tooth, a misfortune tha f may happen co the most careful of us. The second is where it has laid down and died and left its whole set. Up to within the last three or four hundred years >lew Zealand was inhabited by a gigantic bird, compared with whi(h the finest South African ostiich is a pigmy. There were sc-veral varieties of them, and though the bantams of the tribe did not exceed six or seven feet in height the Buff Orpingtons of the race toweied to an altitude of thirteed feet or so. am! had *o climb up a ladder to button on their own collars. One can imagine the devastation a few of these chickens would cause when they began scra'ching in tho Maori kitchen garden. They had no wings, but were immensely stmntr and muscular about tho legs. A. kick from .-ne of them would have j d'.ed a fair sized cow over a fence. Fortunately they kicked out in fiout o*i!y, not like that feetive darkie, Old Jne, who used to kick up before aid behind. I f one had anything disrgr -eahle to say a v ;out one of flit-ni one could always safely say it t> hind lii> luck, like our neighbours do about us nowadays. It wu-> to ore "f these flickty 1 :ds • h t my live poMdi'S belonged 11,.'\ w r the be*t shaded and ■ o>t i.'iy oloiued of th-> gizzardst n s, th it : .;ke the place of teeth itti hud', which a M>a had k tid'y left f<ir met" reinem' er him !>y some e«-i:;u>i»-.N .ifN-r h was (b ad. And

ciii if ill' strung* thinys nli'Ut them i> til i f th y lnve a:l c iiv fmm « lii" ili Miif 1' ;»• i lit v. The whole • !, if- sij.il wi-st • t Franklin C- iintv i- -.| r -eer.t drift. foimation— * V.rh < i inn.' -f' -r t'i(' modesn n; " i i Hi its in 1 hMmi/s ;! 11 fii-jc df th" ■ " ■ grotind t"_"*h'-r i>. • iWIK'IV I!iU-rll':ir J.'l. ,I'.' MJI -ot'l fit.'! j.' -II: I' :• -a •• I. t s ill-tin."- i:cio i; T-r. V» »' t* *■ h [\ r i- \ " r <!. ♦!: Mili'i, t <> t- 'i: '' hj« »' ;s Mi in< • I .!,!.■ .ii. r. l.lit t!„.t l.i- lis : >■. ! •■!■ it. ' ,/i ■itvli .i i-. c< I k->'r A"lrli.'fi ' ' • I Uf.i \til.l. ':li > ->r II •' t i 11 i~ ' .ii ;u— ■! . i'll>!.,t 1 •■' il ->• - ;Ii f i»• US !!• ii i n-tiiih . . \ i: ■ • .. ; : u '.III Ili :I, T, iv ii :u . l •r> lit'l • r-. r .. ,i : . • ; . ■ . I"' r v ■■ !'•••■' t" : t •• ' V Ii ■ ■.< .< l li - r< i<-ii 11!' in- •• •»■ , |.- 'I if I i.liV'l '-> ill* .y iliil is- t MicuPil in r< ♦ ? it al their victims, for their honos

Still found in m&ny swamps. One | tliat was drained at Awhitu some years ago yielded a largo mmutity. Fragments of ogg-sholl, as thick as a penny, are not uncommon, and two or three whole eggs of enormous size have been found. But the last living specimen died long before Ccok camo t > New Zealand. One strange thing about the Moa's teeth is the variety of gay colours they exhibit. A piece of river shingle or a fragment of dingy basalt had no aitiaction for this aesthetic bird. Some American actresses are said to have a diamond set in for a tooth, aud then to cultivate a captivating smile to display it; but one can hardly imagine a Moa smiling broadly enontrh to enable his friends to look down two yardß of throat and see his lovely teeth co he mu;t have been satisfied with the knowledge that he was filled with an inward and spiritual grace, that could only be disclosed after he hfid ceased to exist.