MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 December 1940, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

NEW ZEALAND BIRDS. ’Recorded by J.U.S., of Palmerston North, for the “Times-Age.") The musical notes of the native birds appealed to Captain Cook, who named the korimako ‘‘bell bird,” and to those of us who are privileged by age to have heard them, we appreciate that appropriate name. Giving voice only in the stillness of the early dawn or the sunset, the cadence of soft music reached us as from the skies. The Maori names of birds were often derived from calls —kuku the pigeon, ruru the owl, kaka the brown parrot. The owl's cry after dark and before dawn sounds harshly like “more pork.” and caused the pioneers to give it that name. Several New Zealand birds are most ingenious in getting food. The korora carries a shellfish 100 feet in the air, and drops it on a rock or beach to open it. We have two of the hawk family in New Zealand, the kahu (feathers) and karewarewa (high flyer), known as sparrow hawk. The sparrow hawk, smaller and swifter, is the more cunning of the two. e The kotare (breathless) kingfisher is a blue shade, a colour rare in New Zealand nature. It sits silently for long periods on the look-out for food.

The huia (silent one) was to the Maori the most sacred of all birds. Being tapu, and never molested by man, it became almost domesticated. This fact and the demand by pakeha visitors for its white-tipped feathers at a guinea each led to its extinction 50 years ago. Often as boys we watched pairs of huia searching the stems of decayed trees for grubs. The male bird, with short, sharp beak, picked the wood round grub holes, the lady bird, with long, slender, curved bill, drawing out the grub. The korimako or komako, christened by Captain Cook as “bell bird,” dressed a la princess in close-fitting olive green feathers, is a lover of honey flowers. The spread of tree lucerne now attracts these birds in early spring in some districts. Five species of parrots now being starved out by the wanton destruction of native bush were once a leading feature. The kaka, brown parrot, the second largest, was a staple article of food for the Maoris. The kakapo (night parrot), twice the size, without power of flight, has almost vanished.