MR WEKA GOES FISHING

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22195, 11 September 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

MR WEKA GOES FISHING

Dear Lady Gay and Shipmates,Here is a true nature story about those inquisitive New Zealand native hens, generally known as wekas, but which we as boys called Maori hens. During earlier days on the West Coast these birds were very numerous, and a new tent or camp would not be pitched long before these curious birds came to inspect

and see what it was all about. They would also carry off any bright or new article, such as spoons, tin lids, and pieces of soap, etc. Many are the tales told by the early pioneer diggers about them, but this one is about a clever family of fishing wekas. There was father weka, mother weka, and two young wekas, who we'll call Peter and Percy. They all dwelt in the bush on the banks of a wide and deep water race, in which liued many eels and trout, but as the water at the head, or top end had. been turned off to allow some repairs to be made, the fish now found themselves reduced

to only a few inches of dead or still water in the bottom bf the race. So there they were, wriggling about with barely enough water to cover them.

Father weka on seeing this, called to all his family, and at once hopped down into the race, where another race began between him and an eel trying to escape. It was most exciting. There was daddy wdta down in the mud and water running this way and that, up and down, turning and twisting, trying to catch the slippery

ecl, while mother, Peter, and Percy raced and danced along the bank calling all sorts of encouraging remarks and advice to pa weka. And Oh! how excited Percy and Peter

got about it all. until father weka at last caught tne slithery, slippery, eel firmly in his beak, and with one big jerk threw it up on the bank to ma weka, who immediately picked it up again before it could wriggle back, and threw it further up the rising ground and away from its water race. And then, at it dived Peter and Percy, who picked and pecked and dragged it still further away, so that it just couldn't possibly get back into the water again. But now daddy weka was getting much more, clever at catching and throwing the eels on to the bank from where ma weka carried and threw them still further to Percy and Peter, who pecked and dragged, often both together, the poor eel right over the ridge into dry leaves, where all they could do was squirm and wriggle. Oh! what an exciting and wonderful fishing was that for Mr Weka, Mrs Weka, Percy, and Peter. •And so they caught eels till they were quite tired out, after which daddy weka hopped up out_of_the

race, and shaking and preeuing his feathers, proudly strutted off to the wonderful catch of eels, where Peter and Percy were already pulling, tugging, and quarrelling about one particularly nice young eel, which each thought he liked best. Now. you see what clever wekas Ma, Pa, Percy and Peter Weka really were. —D.A.S.