MAORI NATURE NOTES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 75, 12 March 1930, Page 9

MAORI NATURE NOTES

FOR TRIBUNE READERS

(Copy right-JH.B.)

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 tue years to come.

AMOKURA (glowing messenger), tho red tailed tropic bird, about two feet in length, to which we must u<l.d the long tail plumes. Plumage like shining white satin, with shades of rose showing through it. The red tail feathers a foot long proclaim its tropical origin. Now rare in New Zealand, but once well known to the Ngapuhi in the north, where its plumes were valued above those of tho Kotukq or the Huia. In the tropics, it hovels round ships, and far- at sea will occasionally alight on the ringing. A spirit of altruism now rests upon the sailor oj- the sportsman, and the ardent naturalist no Idilger seeks rare specimens with u gun. The Amokura has a fascination to all sailor nieu, who fancifully named it the “Bo’sun bird. One.of our big liners bears this name of Amokura. fn tropic seas where only flying fasli and Mother Carey’s chickens, vary the monotony, every .sailor man and passenger, hails tho appearance of this striking beauty.