ENIGMA OF THE HUIA

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31304, 25 February 1967, Page 5

ENIGMA OF THE HUIA

(Specially written for "The Press" by JAMES CRICHTON)

OFFICIALLY the huia was last seen in 1907. But there has been a intermittent stream of possible sightings reported since then, enough to make it quite clear that the huia, although severely depleted in numbers, was not extinct by 1907.

Many authorities believe the huia to be extinct today, but others disagree. Either way, there is no concrete proof.

Its habitat, even at the best of times, was a somewhat restricted one. It frequented the heavily forested central ranges and adjacent valleys of the North Island between Wellington and the East Cape, but it may have descended to lower levels in winter. If it survives today it will be only in isolated pockets. Some authorities also believe that the huia was once found in the north of the South Island, but evidence is somewhat inconclusive on this point. The huia is (or was, depending on one’s optimism) one of the world’s strangest birds. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that the male and female have different beaks. Indeed so different are the sexes that the early naturalist John Gould regarded them as two distinct species. Older zoologists considered the huia to be a New Zealand representative of the starling family. A more recent and widely-accepted view is that it should be placed in a separate family, Callaeidae, or New Zealand wattle birds. The native saddle-back and native crow are members of the same family. Bill Shape The first thing one notices about a pair of huias is that remarkable difference of bill shape. The female’s bill is long, thin and curved and thickening at the base, while the male’s is of medium length and very much stouter than its mate’s. The base of the bill in the male is wider than the female’s and the sharp tapering to the bill more pronounced. The beak’s colour in both sexes ranges from a beautiful ivory white to a bluish grey at the base.

In good health the wattles (the lobes pendant from the neck) are bright orange and in a mature bird they measure almost an inch across.

W. J. Phillipps In his “The Book of the Huia” describes the body colour of the bird as follows: “The general bodily colour is dark blue merging to black, with an overall greenish sheen covering the anterior parts and sometimes extending on to the tail.” The breast is bluish green, but apart from that black predominates underneath. The tail feathers are a pure glossy black with white tips. The feet are blue-grey and the bird’s length is about 19in.

The main food of the huia, especially the female, is the huhu grub, a large, fat, whiteish slug, which the Maoris consider a delicacy. The birds found the grub in decaying logs. The male, with his strong beak, would open up tunnels into which the female could insert her bill and extract the grub. It would appear that the male huia ate a good deal of small insects and Phillipps thinks that these formed the main part of its diet. In the autumn the birds’ diet was supplemented by fruits from native trees such as hinau. Poor Flier The huia is a poor flyer. It could sometimes be seen in flight, but it preferred to move along by a succession of light hops. It would sometimes stop to display its tail in a beautiful fan to its mate.

One of its most curious habits was that of using its tail as a kind of prop while clinging to a tree, after the maner of the woodpecker.

As the birds were almost always seen in pairs it is safe to assume that they mated for life. They were certainly very affectionate toward one another.

Their inquisitiveness also was often remarked upon, especially in the early days. A pair would often come to investigate men working in the forest. They could often be attracted by whistling and this, coupled with their complete lack of fear, enabled the Maoris to catch them. The pairs kept together by uttering a soft whistle. As Phillipps says: "It seems almost as if they were talking to each other.” The huia does not seem to have been at all particular as to where it built its nest, as nests were found on or near the ground; in a hollow tree: at the top of a truncated tree; and on a rather precarious ledge formed by two rata branches. The nest itself was built of astelia leaves and sticks while the cup was lined with liner material of the same kind. It was about 14in in diameter, the cup being nearly 7in across and 2jin deep. Nesting Months The huia nested in the months of October and November. Oliver describes the two to four eggs in his standard reference work “New Zealand Birds” as being “stone grey with markings of rounded spots and dots of dark purplish grey and brown.” The house-proud parent apparently removed all traces of egg-shell from its nest.

In pre-European days the huia was regarded as sacred by the Maori. As a royal bird, the only persons who could properly wear the beautiful white-tipped tail feathers were high ranking chiefs. The chiefs wore the feathers in their hair; and the body of the bird, minus wings and feet, was also used

as an ear ornament. The Maoris caught the huia by using a long rod with a running knot at one end. The huia was attracted by a whistle and then the noose would be lowered. With the arrival of the European and the gradual impression of Western culture on the Maori, the authority of the chiefs began to diminish and the laws ot tapu which the Maori had built up over the centuries to protect the chiefly bird were largely forgotten. In this relatively enlightened age, we may be forgiven for wondering what caused the extinction or near extinction of such a remarkable bird. W. J. Phillipps believes that the main cause was the clearance of forest areas with the advance of civilisation. Other authorities have attributed it to the pakeha collector with his desire for birds for the European market. I am myself convinced that the biggest single factor was the advent of the shotgun. In pre-European days the number of huias snared by the Maori would have had little or no effect on the population.

But, with the arrival of the European with his shotgun and his wish to see the museums filled with lifeless specimens, the whole position changed. Incited by the European’s money and armed with the European’s shotgun, the Maori began to massacre the birds in their hundreds: Buller records over six hundred birds being killed in one expedition. Wild Cats The introduction of stoats and weasels from Tasmania to combat the severe rabbit pest of the 1880 s to the 1890 s and the presence in the huia’s haunts of wild cats (far more numerous then than they are

today) could well have had a serious effect on the huia population.

Because of the high prestige attached to the wearing of huia feathers, every Maori who had any claim, however small, to the rangitira class wanted at least one feather to wear when needed.

The final blow came just after 1900, though, when the demand for feathers, by both the Maori and the European, was at its peak. It is traditionally supposed to have been brought about by a Maori guide removing her own huia feather and placing it in the hatband of the visiting Duke of York. Little Effect As a direct result of the work of the New Zealand Governor, the Earl of Onslow, the huia had been given official protection in February of 1892. Unfortunately, like other wild life laws then and today, this proved hard to enforce and seems to have had little effect in arresting the huia’s population decline. The Earl of Onslow suggested that live huias be caught, along with some other rare species and taken to a sanctuary. An attempt to make the sale, disposal, or traffic in huia feathers illegal failed. There seems to have been a singular amount o« bungling in the attempts of the authorities to capture the huia for liberation on sanctuaries. Signs Apparent

The last official expedition was in 1924. No huias were seen but signs were apparent. But sightings from as recently as 1954 and 1961 have been reported. An “extinct” bird has already been rediscovered in New Zealand. One can only hope that it will happen again.