Maoris and the Birds

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22391, 11 April 1936, Page 10 (Supplement)

Maoris and the Birds

"TTAVING read a note in this column - n - on the amokura I thought I would send you a short account of that bird taken from my—personal study and notes," writes the Hon. G. J. Garland. "Amokura" is a name given by the Maoris to the red-tailed tropic bird, which, although not a New Zealand bird, was known to them from stray specimens or from tail feathers brought from the Pacific Islands. The reference some weeks ago was to a specimen picked up at Taupo after a gale and now in the Dominion Museum, Wellington. A short description of the bird and its distribution was then given, to which are hero added some further details from Mr. Garland's interesting summary.

"The amokura is about the same size as a black-backed gull. Its beak is yellow or orange and the body plumage a soft pink, with two long streamlined red feathers in the tail. In 1877 Sir Walter Bidler recorded that one of these birds was shot at the Big King, and that nearly every year some dead amokura were washed ashore on the north coast. However, no specimens have been collected either dead or alive in that locality so far as I know in recent years. I have frequently seen the bosun bird —the name given it by sailors —in its home in tropical seas. It has a good spread of wing, short in the tip, and the tail feathers projecting from 14 to 16 inches do not over-balance the bird, but rather lend grace and beauty to it. »

"Any person might be forgiven for thinking the amokura to be a land bird because its flight is marked by quick strong beats of the wing rather than by the gliding action so common to a very large number of our seabirds. When feeding the bird keeps about 60 to 100 feet above the sea, ready to plunge after its prey, which consists of sprats, squid, or other marine organisms of the same size. Like nearly all seabirds tropic birds nest in colonies and choose some rock or islet difficult of access; one egg only is laid in some crevice of the cliff or rock, with little or no attempt at nest-building. The egg is heavily spotted with red brown and purple to such an extent that the yellowish ground-colour is almost obliterated by the spots. The chicks when batched are covered with the usual nestling down, but they soon show dark barred feathers on the upper parts. The two long tail feathers do not appear until the next season; when they do they are worn by both sexes."

Mr. Garland then quotes Sir Walter Buller's account of the value placed by the Maoris on the tail feathers. These were sometimes obtained by members of the Ngapuhi tribe and had high exchange value in relation to greenstone from the south, a valuable slab of which is said to have been given by a Hawke's Bay chief in exchange for three feathers. He comments also on the wealth of legend and song that centred round birds and beasts and trees, and having come across the first line of a

By R. A. FALLA

love song that begins, "Come, deck my head with amokura plumes," has ventured to compose an imaginary version of its possible theme. The opening stanzas refer to the home of the bird across the sea, and the song concludes:

The tokens of your love are in the plumes you brinsr To deck my head in sunshine or in pale moonlight. So in thy absence the song my heart snail sing ... Will be of hope for thy return all beautiful and bright.

Mr. Garland may shortly publish this with other essays on New Zealand birds as he has observed them over 60 years.

It is a fascinating side-line in New Zealand natural history to delve into the nature lore of the ancient Maori. Of necessity living close to nature, he not only was skilled as a hunter of birds, but like Hiawatha he "learned their names and all their secrets." Fortunately, an account of Maori woodcraft, together with many myths, rites, customs and superstitions connected with the flora and fauna as they relate to the TJrewera district, has been preserved by the late Mr. Elsdon Best in his articles on Maori Forest Lore, which were published in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute nearly 30 years ago. But, as the author there points out, it is by no means comprehensive inasmuch as it treats of only a

part of the forest lore of a single tribe, the Tuhoe. With the passing away of the older people possessed of this knowledge the nature lore relating to other parts of New Zealand is now for ever lost.

The origin and relationship of native names for plants and animals has given rise to much speculation and has been used as evidence by those investigators who have endeavoured to trace the migrations of the Polynesian peoples. It is found that many general names are the same over a large area of the Pacific; such, for example, as "manu 4o signify a bird. The names for many well-marked bird families are also similar; the small owl is '|ruru" in New Zealand and small owls in many Pacific Islands are "lulu," which, in origin, is the same word. It must also be remembered that the same name may be used for birds of different families but j similar habits.

Thus "moa" is applied in some Pacifio Islands to any large fowls, even the domestic varieties. Bishop Bennett was informed during a recent visit to the Chatham Islands that a certain wooden spear had been used by the Moriori for hunting the "moa." This, in itself, cannot be taken to mean that the giant Dinornis ever inhabited the islands, for the name may well have been applied there to the iarge rail, now extinct.