THE RIRORIRO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18281, 23 December 1922, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE RIRORIRO.

BY BEN KEYS.

ORIGIN OF THE NAME. I I j j ;

Great indeed are the changes that have taken place jjn the bird life of New Zealand during the past half-century, and in the contemplation of these there is much cause for regret, much also for satisfaction. The forces of destruction have worked amain, and many a species is dead or dying; but the tale is not wholly sad, for some'at least of the importations from other lands afford pleasure and compensation. The march of civilisation is not to be stayed—civilisation meams the settlement of new countries — and settlement of new countries means the disturbance of the balance of nature. And when the balance of nature is disturbed, the wild things are the first to pay the penalty. Later, nature will readjust the conditions to suit herself, and the disturbance will be lost in the allheali/ng vastuess of time. But the result of the disturbance will never be lost, for the result is that very readjustment by which the disturbance is hidden. Nor are the workings of nature to attain her ends to be followed and fully understood by mortals. Why, for instance, have some of our tamest, smallest, and apparently most defenceless birds withstood the threatened danger of extinction? How (leaving out of consideration the clearing away of natural coverts) have the fantails, warblers, tomtits, and pipits survived the ravages of rats, stoats l weasels, and gunners, and the depredations of the domestie and undomesticated cats? They are amqngst the gentlest and most trusting of feathered creatures, yet it seems certain they will survive, and perhaps they have even begun to increase a little. Of all our small indigenous birds the grey warbler is one of the best known to Maori and to European. Despite the presence of enemies not previously known, and the substitution of cultivated spaces for the rough heaths, its enjoyment of life seems not to have been seriously interfered with. It is a bird that finds happiness almost as readily in shrubberies and ordered gardens as in the wastes of manuka and on the outskirts of forests; and though it is not often inclined to nest very mear to the habitations of men, yet its sadly sweet and plaintive trill may sometimes be heard from beneath our very casements. It is a tiny bird, in length not much more than four inches over ati. of slender and natty build, and of quick and lithesome movement. With an air of pre-occupied fearlessness, it hops and flits lightly from twig to twig and' from branchlet to branchlet in search of its insect food. Sometimes it pauses to sing its gentle song, so simple and yet so appealing. I have heard it in the silence of the glens; and I have listened to it from my office window, intermingling with the whirr of motor-cars and the insistent scream of a planing-mill. And always there is in the song that simple, gentle appeal suggesting the pathetic innocence of a little child at '• .-■■• alone amidst the flowers. Even in their quarrels they retain that low, sweet gentleness of voice. For they do quarrel sometimes—l watched three of them last August in the mating Feason, when i ne young female was sought by two lovers, and they twittered and trilled together as if they were sinking in concert the tendereat of love-sonjjs. Foster Parent of the Shining Cuckoo. Its plumage is dull greyish green above and grey and whito beneath, so the bird is not noticeable in the sombre shades — though indeed the wee creature seems to have no desire to hide itself from observation. The grey warbler will always bo of more than ordinary interest, bscauso it is the foster-parent of the bronze or shining cuckoo. Apart from its own ( <~ —.it > attractiveness, one cannot but regard it with admiration for its courage and selfsacrifice in tending, feeding, and rearing a bird so much bigger and hungrier than itself-—the murderer too of its own newhatched young ones. The nest of the warble-; is a wonderful structure. In shape it roughly resembles a large pear, suspended from the smaller end, and stayed to the twigs to keep it steadv. Generally it is built- of grass blades, rootlets, mosses, and down, but lately I found one of unusually largo size in a gorso bush (it prefers manuka as a rulo), which was lined wholly with the pappus of raupo. A hole high up in the side, surmounted by a little porch and hardly large enough to permit of the insertion of one's thumb, admits the bird, which in this warm, dry shelter lays from three to six pretty eggs, white or faintest pink, marked with pale red speckles. How docs the cuckoo get her own egg into the nest? Some say she lays it on the ground and then carries it up in bill or claw. Some say me breaks the wall of the nest and lays dircct.y therein. I have never seen now it :s done, so I don't know. A JTolk Tale of the Arawas. The Maoris had many names for the crey warbler, all of them imitative of the bird's trilling song, Hero are some of them—riroriro, honronro, koionro, nrerire borne if, korircruv. bro < . ' riretoro. There is no doubt that these words, except perhaps the last, are imitative, for when speaking of tne bird the Maoris describe Us song as being " ri-i-i-ro riro nro riro riroT" with the. first vowel drawn out and the subsequent syllables quickly spoken. But there is a folk-tale of the Arawa peo-ple-far too long to be recited here—that ascribes an origin for the name It tells of a queer old witch, with wing-like arms, who ate her food raw—birds which she speared by shooting out her lips at them. Her name was Kurangaituku. In her wanderings she had captured a young man named Ha-tupatu (whose adventures before and after his sojourn with Kurangaituku were most wonderful) and kept him in a sort of captivity in her home in the mountains. One day Ha-tupatu persuaded her to go to a very distant range of hills to search for birds, for ho did not care to eat his food uncooked and undressed, and he had determined to escape during her absence. Then he stole all the beautiful mat-garments of Kurangaituku and seizing a big wooden spear or sword of hers he slew 6,11 her pet lizards and birds. One alone escaped, and it flow away To warn the witch of what had occurred. As it flew it called continuously, " Kua riro a taua taonga, riro katoa, riroriro rawa " —"Our possessions aie gone, all gone, quite gone." And thenceforward that bird was called the riroriro. There is another name—but little known and now obsolete—arising from the same incident. It is tiotio, from the frequentative form of the verb tio, to call or cry out.

A Bird that Foretells the Weather.

The natives say the riroriro lias a prescirnce of the weather conditions to be experienced each year. Here is a translation oF a note I made long ago of a statement by an old Ngatikalmngunu chief living at Waipawa. in Hawke's Bay. It sets out the belief held generally by all the tribes:—" The riroriro, knowing which will be the worst winds during the year, builds its nest in such a way thai the entrance will face that direction from which the strong and prevailing winds will not blow. The back of the nest is turned toward the quarter from which the wind will prevail in the cold weather. If the wind is. say, to be southerly, the entrance will face to the iiorih; or if westerly, then the entrance will be toward the east. So the .Maori knows beforehand which will be the strung prevailing winds each year." Not only, it was said, could the bird thus foretell the seasons, but also its opening song in August announced the proper time to dig ground for the cultivations. The riroriro told when to prepare the gardens and the pipiwhar'auroa when to plant the kumara. And so arose the saying, applied to the person who had made no stores of food for winter use, " I hea koe i te tangihanga o te rirortr<| ?"—"Where) were, when the. riroiiro sang'i'-'