MAORI NATURE NOTES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 71, 7 March 1930, Page 7

MAORI NATURE NOTES

FOR TRIBUNE READERS (Copyright—J .f 1.8,1 Readers of the “Tribune” who are interested in the flora and bird life of New Zealand, by cutting out these Maori Nature Notes each day as they appear and filing them in a suitable scrap book, may. compile a book of reference which will be to them a source of pleasure and instruction in the years to come. PIPI WHARAu HOA (distant tant resting places), the shining cuckoo, which, according tb a schoolboy ‘ 1 lays other birds ’ eggs in its own nest and viva vocel” In these days the old birds are seldom seen; but even in town this foster child of the Riroriro comes out in the open and pipes his tune morning and evening from tho self-same twig for several months. Buller says tho Wharau roa lays her egg on tho ground and carries it in the beak to the tiny nest which she eannet enter. English observers of the cuckoo say they even remove the eggs of the foster mother in her absence. Their migration is a mystery, but they leave our land in January and reappear for hatching about September. In no instance have they been seen hero in the interval by Maori or Pakcha. They are easily identified by their musical notes, hrown bars across tlie breast, and bronze green back and wing. Tho young birds are duller and resemble a thrush. The Shining Cuckoo figures in Maori legend and English poetry.