MUTTON BIRD SEASON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 161, 29 June 1908, Page 4

MUTTON BIRD SEASON.

MKD-SNAULNU IX TIIL iSOITU. The Otago Daily Tmu's' lilutV correspondent, writ' 1 -!: liird-snaring. hk l '* wi-e named mutton-bii'ding, is a survival of ancient Maori custom. It combines profit with pa.stinie, ami to thai fact it i-> no doubt indebted u-r its -ontinuity. Being recurrent, it make? a welcome break on the monotony of life. wit si I Ui* further incentive ol' a needful *upply of ready ca-di, in whifli member* of I lit* ha[iu or household participate IndividI ually. The current year's operation* have only just ended, and lit relation I thereto the following particulars are I adduced. in round numbers 100.000 birds have 'teen trapped., which at current are worth Jd each, or say. a total tf ClOliO. Adult-! engaged ill the v.ork are -set down at 100. or, including women and children 4MU, the latter ranging from a baby in arms upwards. The length of the *ea>onniay according to the weather he anything from *ix to ten weeks, Kight is about tire average. Allocating tile foregoing oil a uniform basis we get a Mini of till) to each family. Out of that U or so has to be taken for f»nwyance to and from the island, and. > iy. another Cl per head for victuals. Alt>igether they make from .Cl"2 to A.U clear prolit, after defraying incidental expen-C". Kac!i family party. <»r ftapu, lia- got iu own island, or in the cw of large i-land.-, it> separate alloiment.

Tlie-c Uiey h'dd by tra<iitionarv iliriit. title. and mtcre*t.and such a Il*iJi«r a* poaching is n«U permissible. Despite tiie cireum*tai)ee< of their ca-a*. neighbors' quarrels are of rare occurence. and the mni'M harmony and good nature prevail*. It is a rude lite, but it gets as well uj) to tlie n»ages of "rude I'orefalh•T"" a- present day fastidiousness permits.

So much for the bird-hunter-. iie birds llieniM'lve* are even more interesting. They burrow ill the ground like rabbits. The burrow- are long or short, according to the nature of the soil, [n *ott. inly ground they go in a considerable di-iauc-e. It is necessary to Jiundle these burrow- carefully. The parent bird- rerom >»ea*on after season to the previous year - roosi, but- if it is tampered with, left oppjj. and exposed to wind and Heather, they leave it severely aloiuand betake thein-elves to other IJie lo** tails on the negligent suaror. and if persisted in hi* ground will eventually be left desolate. The bird* return to their breeding ground about the month of September. Tin* first thing l hey do K to clean out and recast tile neMs. Tiicy are scrupulously careful iu that respect, if damp lias accumulated iii-ide they are off "like a shot." The fact that they return to their previous years nest is certified iu a variety of ways. The most conclusive is that a pair of pure white birds arc noted to hava occupied the same nest for years past and still continue to do so. The e n,fr s are laid punctually to the day, on tfte 2.3 th November. No divergence either before or after that particular date is exjH'rienced. Jt makes rather an extraordinary trait in bird-life, but so f ;U - as the mutton-birders ; iye concerned it is' implicitly relied on. They slate that j they have examined the 'nol* on the 1 2-fth without finding a single egg. where- i as on the day following they found evorv nest containing its full * quota. One month's incubation ensues, ami say, on or about December 'Jo, the young fledg- [ lino- is hatched. From thence until about I the middle of April the young bird re.mains in the nest, strictly 'secluded. I Meantime the parent enters upon a festive *eas»on. Every morning, an hour or so before daybreak, they floek oil" to sea. returning a»ai»i after liqjliifall. gorge I with tond. From the particular inline of the -ounds emitted, it i* assumed their entire "night's rest is devoted to feodin.ti rhe y«iung. If tliey >b-ep at all i' if in brief repose. *nnlched at interval- in Ihe feeding prjM-e.s-.. In April the yniing birds venture out into the "p«ii. ami begin in Under about as if bringing their wings into practice for Hight. Thereupon the old birds -et, out for their winter quarters, leaving the 1 t»eanoirs offspring to be deilt wiHi by the .Maori, with what results the fore- * going is a brief synop*is.