THE HUIA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1914, Page 4

THE HUIA.

Writing to Mr J. Drummond, E.L.S., whoso New Zealand natural history work is so well known, a correspondent at Taumarunui repeats an opinion, based on reports from Maoris, that the buia still exists in the very rough, isolated and unexplored country between the Main Trunk Line in the North Island and the - West Const. A report was recently made that a party of settlers, while cutting a forest track near the Motuhora Mountain, a few miles from Motu, beweon Gisborne and Opotiki, saw a buia, a female, with a long, curved bill. The country, evidently, is remarkably rough, and, for that reason, the report states, the bird was

safe from the party. ‘‘lt ought,’ says I\l r Drummond, “of course, to have been safe from the party in any case. If that party or any other party is found guilty of killing a hum, the punishment should be as severe as the law provides. That, however,; is by the wtcy. The most interesting feature of the report is the statement that a huia has been seep in the Motn district. This is in the llankumara Range, which runs up almost to the East Cape, and is hundreds of miles further north than the huia has been reported previously. When it was fairly plentiful, it was found usually in the Ruahinc, Tararua, Rinmtaka and Kaimanawa ranges, and on their spurs and in the valleys, and sometimes in the forests on the Wai-nni-o-mata lulls, north of the City of Wellington. Although greatly localised in habitat, individuals have been reported from other districts. Tn 1881 an individual was seen near Te Rinopoanga, in the Patea County, and at intervals other individuals have been reported at Golden Ray and in the forests between Nelson and Picton, in the

South Island. The occurrence of an individual at the Motu, therefore, although strange, is not improbable.”