THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 3018, 17 January 1912, Page 92

THE NATURALIST.

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE, j NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY IN . NEW ZEALAND. (By Jameß Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) . BIRD-SNARERS. Fowling, probably, was one of the first arts practised by man. In very Temote times, at almost the dawn of his intelligence, when his intellect was in a very wild and woolly condition, he was attracted by the birds in the trees. Hi& first impulse was to discover if they were suitable for food. Later on, when he had fairly set out on the highway of the development that raised him immeasurably above other animals, he saw that birds' plumages were beautiful, and that in them • there was a means of gratifying his taste for personal adornment. This weakness was represented in feathers stuck inartistically in the savage's unkempt harr, in the elaborate head-dress of the North j American brave, and in the gracefully- I sweeping plumes of the behelmeted knight errant. To-day it survives, the Telic of a barbarous age, in the plumed cocked hats of naval and. military officers, and in the dainty feather-bedecked bonnets of fashionable ladies. With these two motives uppermost in his mind—the satisfying of his hunger and the gratification of a taste recently acquired—primitive man tried to catch birds with his hands. Finding that that was not satisfactory, he tried to knock the birds down with sticks and stones. When that, also, failed to meet his growing needs, he set his wits to work, invented cunning traps and snares, and created the art of fowling. |

The complete history of fowling is a very fascinating study. It is attractive to the ethnologist as well as to the ornithologist, and, indeed, to all who wish'to trace man's progress. The art reached the height of its popularity in the middlo ages, when gentry, nobility, and even royalty regarded it as a noble pastime. With the (general use of gunpowder it began to deciino in civilised countries. It was then left in the hands of a few persons, who adopted it as a vocation. Italy, probably, is .the only European country in which it survives in the old form. Large landholders there still set aside parts of their estates for fowling purposes. In the United Kingdom it is followed in a greatly modified form by those whoi make a business of catching Twigs smeared with bird-lime aire used for taking birds alive. Sometimes the birds are intoxicated by a mixture of the lees of wine and hemlock-juice. In this wheat is steeped, and is afterwards scattered over places the birds frequent. They eat the igrain, become stupified, and are easily caught. Pheasants are sometimes stupified by sulphur fumes. Clapnets, trammels, and horsehair nooses are also used. But in these methods there is none of the skill that was demanded in the old-time fowling, which may now be regarded as one of England's lost arts.

It is also a lost art in New Zealand. But it was lost here during the pa*?t few years, not during the past few centuries. The motives that prompted primitive man to take birds prompted the Maori, lie wanted the birds' bodies for food and their feathers for use and ornament. There are few countries in which birds received more attention than the Maoris gave them in New Zealand. This is accounted for by the fact that in an almost mammal less land birds were one of the principal articles of food. Birds and fishes, indeed, were the only flesh foods the Maoris possessed, except the little Maori rat, yie Maori dog, an occasional seal, a stranded whale, molluscs, and a few lizards, and also the tuatara reptile, which was eaten by members of sonieof the tribes. Another obvious exception, of course, is human flesh, but that was not an item in regular diet, and can hardly be included in the list. In these circumstances it is not surprising that the Maori was a very skilful fowler. To him the art was much moTe than a mere pastime. When he roamed the dark forests, making friendly- visits to other tribesmen or pursuing enemies, or being pursued by them, birds often afforded him the only food he could obtain for days. Without them he would have faced hardship and starvation. With these incentives he did not lose

opportunities for becoming acquainted with the birds' habits and discovering the best ways of outwitting them and of bringing them into his hands. Fowling was an important part of his training when he was a lad, and one of his vocations when he grew un. It was an equipment for the struggle of life. Efficiency in it made him a man of mark and gained him a fame that did not die with him. The importance placed upon skill in fowling is shown by the elaborate ceremonies associated with it. The art of war itself, perhaps, was not hedged round with more cere ; monial rights" and conditions. From the time a fowler began to make his snares and spears until he returned to the village with the result of his day's toil he had to observe the stern and bewildering laws of tapu, which confronted him at every turn.

Mr Elsdon Best, who has lifted the veil from many quaint customs and ideas that contemptuous civilisation has driven into the nooks of memory, has described the " whare mata." It was the house set aside in every important village for the manufacture of snares, traps, and other devices for taking birds. The house and all who worked in it were subject to the strictest tapu, which was not removed until the first fruit rites were performed. Most of these observances were regarded as a means of p eserving from contamination the mysterious mauri or hau of the t forests. It* is difficult to express in English exactly what the Maoris meant by these terms. They were applicable to all things, including the heavens and the earth, the sun, rroon, and staTS, the seasons ami the winds, gardens, crops, animals, homes, and men. They represented not altogether, the soul, but the essence of things. Mr J. Cowan describes the mauri of the forests as " the intangible quality that makes the forests fruitful as sources of food supply," and Mr licet says that if the mauri and the hau were not protected the forests would lose their vitality and productiveness, and would no longer yield their flocks v of birds. The mauri or hau was sometimes represented by a tangible thing. Usually the token was a stone, but sometimes it was the wins; of a kaka or a strip of the leaf of a cabbage-tree. Sometimes* also, it was a hollow stone, which contained a lock, of hair or other article. When fowlers went into the forests at the beginning of tho season to see if the birds were plentiful and in good condition a few were caught, and .tho first thrown away. It was for the mauri. When the fowlers returned to their homes, and the cooking of the birds for preserving was begun, some were set aside and cooked in a sacred fire. They were for the hau.

! The tokens of the mauri and the hau were concealed in the depths of the forests by the tohungas, and were also protected by Tight* and incantations. If an enemy discovered a token he would obtain control of the mauri or hau and interfere with the productiveness of the forests, and consequently with ons of the principal food supplies. Sometimes a species of lizard, legarded with superstition, was placed in position to guard the token. The fact that the white man, with his practical ideas, has not altogether destroyed the '' niana" of the mauri and the hau is shown by a short passage in Mr Cowan's " The Maoris of New Zeal land," published in 1910. It *is stated i there that opposite the Ongarue railway station, on the North Island Main Trunk line, there is a piece of woodland that has been famous .from remote ages as a place for snaring and spearing tuis. At the proper season tuis still gather there in large numbers, and circle round with many cries. The forest consists of trees that are not the tuis' favourite feeding trees. The birds, therefore, are not attracted by food supplies. The explana- ! tion offered is that they are drawn by a mauri, hidden in past ages by a tohunjga who possessed exceptionally strong influence.

j The Maoris' methods of snaring birds were effective. As far as ingenuity is concerned they compare very favourably with the methods of other barbarous ' people. Success demanded a close acquaintance with the birds' habits and peculiarities. This made the Maori a I fairly deep student of Nature. When I observation and knowledge failed him he I ingeniously invented theories, which were ; quite satisfactory to him. He believed, j for instance, that the- two migratory ! cuckoos, which spend the spring and summer in this country, buried them- ; selves in the mud or earth in the autumn, remained dormant during the winter, and I (.'-line out from the (ground again in the spring. Stupendous labour was spent I upon the snares, which, consequently, had i a very high value. This is shown by the j manner of making the spear," the simplest weapon used against the birds, and one of manv devices. It was between 30ft and ' 40ft long, and was always made from the j tawa tree, which, when seasoned, is light. I When it was decided that a new spear should be made, a tall, straight tawa tree , was selected in the forest. The felling alone in the Stone Age, even with the help of fire, was a igreat work. The top and the branches were lopped off. The trunk was dragged into the open and was split by wedges into two equal halves. The j better half was split again, arwl the best i quarter of the tree obtained in th;it way i was used for the. spear. A raised bed of : clay was prepared, and the surface was beaten smooth and regular. On that bed the woorl was adzed until it was the shape and thickness required. The operation was completed by scraping the spear with a broken shell or a piece of obsidian. If the weapon was manufactured in two years it was felt that very good progress had been made. If tapu laws were observed and the God of the Forests was propitiated in order that he might send his feathered children to be '.filed, the fowler had nothing in the world to vex him. Sitting straddle on the branch of a tree, spear in hand, he was as happy as a child at play all day long.